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VOCATIONAL 
PSYCHOLOGY 

ITS PROBLEMS AND METHODS ''"'Jk£-^C 



y^ '^ BY 

H.' Lf HOLLINGWORTH 

ASSOCIATE PB0FES80B OF P8TCHOLOQT, 
COLUMBIA UHIVEB3ITY 



WITH A CHAPTER ON 

THE VOCATIONAL APTITUDES OF WOMEN 

By LETA STETTER HOLLINGWORTH, Ph.D. 

CLIHICAL PSYCHOLOGIST, BELLEVUE HOSPITAL, , 
NEW YOBK CITY 




D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 

NEW YORK LONDON 

1916 






COPTBIQHT, 1916, BY 

D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 



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JUL 22 1916 

Copyright m the United States of America 
©Ci.A433832 



TO 

THADDEUS L. BOLTON 

FRIEND AND VOCATIONAL 
COUNSELLOR OF YOUTH 



Digitized by tine Internet Arciiive 
in 2011 witii funding from 
Tine Library of Congress 



Iittp://www.arcliive.org/details/vocationalpsyclio01 iioii 

L 



It is our "business to make both a science and an art of 
human nature. As m the physical world we select first 
the WAiterial suited to our purpose, then turn the iron 
into steel and temper the steel for the knife, so in the 
world of human action we must learn to select the right 
man, to educate him and to fit him for his exact task. 
This indeed we try to do in all our social institutions, 
religions, commerce, systems of education and govern- 
ment. But we work hy the rule of thumb — Mind, deaf 
and ivasteful. The nineteenth century witnessed an ex- ] 
traordinary increase in our knowledge of the material ! 
world and in our power to make it subservient to our j 
ends; the twentieth century will probably witness a cor- \ 
responding increase in our knowledge of human nature 
and in our power to use it for our welfare. — J. McKeen _\ 
Cattell , ' ' Homo Scientificus Americanus, ' ' Science' 
April 10, 1903. 






L 



PREFACE 

This book has developed from the material presented 
in a course on ' ' Psychological Tests in Vocational Guid- 
ance and Selection" which the writer was invited to 
conduct in Teachers' College, Jolumbia University. The 
wide-spread interest in vocational psychology which has 
grown up in recent years, the eagerness with which even 
the most superficial and absurd systems of "character 
analysis ' ' are being adopted and tried out, and especially 
the lack of references, offering conservative evaluation, 
to which inquirers may be directed, have made it seem 
advisable to publish the material in systematic form. 
The book is essentially a presentation of the problems 
and methods of that branch of applied psychology which 
deals with individual differences in mental constitution. 
In the present instance only those differences are con- 
sidered which may seem to be significant in determining 
the individual's choice of a vocation, or in influencing 
the selection of workers from among a group of appli- 
cants or candidates. It is the writer's hope that the book 
may be suggestive to the individual who seeks to know 
himself better, helpful to the student and parent who 
may desire to avoid the wiles of the charlatan, encour- 
aging to the investigator or counsellor who is engaged 
in carrying forward the solution of vocational problems, 
and useful to the practical man who may be mainly 
interested in surrounding himself with competent asso- 
ciates and employees. To all those whose published 
works are referred to in the bibliography, as well as to 

ix 



„ (-.liHipMIIB^PWB^JIIjil^ 



PREFACE 

many not therein mentioned, the writer is under heavy 
obligations. He is especially indebted to Professor F. G. 
Bonser, of Teachers' College, for the original invitation 
to formulate the material, and to Professor Joseph Jas- 
trow, editor of the ''Conduct of Mind" series, for most 
patient and helpful editorial criticism and suggestion. 

H. L. HoujIngworth. 
Columbia University. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I, — ^Motives and Antecedents of Vocational 

Psychology 1 

II. — The Search for Phrenological ANp Physi- 
ognomic Principles 21 

III. — The Development op Psychological Tests . 57 

IV. — The Psychogbaphic Methods ...... 80 

V. — Special Vocational Tests and Methods . . 109 

VT. — Self-analysis and the Judgment of Asso- 
ciates 122 

Vll. — Experimental Study of Self-analysis^ Esti- 
mates OF Associates and tme Results of 

THE Tests 143 

VIII. — The School Curriculum as a Vocational 

Test 174 

IX. — The Determinants of Vocational Aptitude 208 

X. — The Vocational Aptitudes of Women . . . 222 

XI. — Theory and Principle of Psychological Tests 

AS Applied to Vocational Analysis . . . 245 

XII.— Conclusion 266 

Appendix 275 

Tests, Blanks, Standards, Forms 283 

Index 303 



INTRODUCTION 

In the present volume Professor Hollingworth. makes 
a distinctive and notable contribution to applied psychol- 
ogy. The problem is an ancient one : that of determining 
the qualities of men with reference to their fitness for 
the work of the world. The general problem precedes 
the special one alike in theory and in practice. The 
earliest solutions were in the nature of ambitious at- 
tempts to read the ear-marks of mental ability in outward 
signs ; under the incentive of the growth of science these 
gave way to such systems as phrenology and physiog- 
nomy. Such revelations, decisive if sound, proved to be 
vain hopes or hopelessly irrelevant. The impressionistic 
verdicts gained from actual experience reflected the cu- 
mulative acumen of discernment which ever was and 
remains the issue of wisdom, empirical but authentic. It 
furnishes suggestive clues to investigation and a check 
upon its results. The problem came to its own when 
the modern science of psychology gave it its setting in 
the rapid accumulation of knowledge and technique for 
the interpretation of mental qualities. It at once estab- 
lished the futility of ambitious leads and the necessity 
of careful, patient and discerning analysis. The present 
volume surveys the field of attained results and the 
method of their attainment, in this engaging research. 

Central in interest and promise stands the psycho- 
logical test. In so far as psychology has laid bare the 
fundamental qualities upon which achievement depends, 

xiii 



xiy INTRODUCTION 

its application has developed a series of tests to deter- 
mine how the individual compares with the others or with 
the average in respect to this, that, and the other con- 
stituent quality. Professor Hollingworth presents the 
results of such analysis, both in relation to the variety 
of human traits and in the grading of individuals by 
reference to the measure of the quality which each pos- 
sesses. The enumeration is at best provisional, but in 
its totality cannot go far wrong in establishing the mea- 
sure of a man. It includes the qualities which can 
hardly be determined otherwise than by an impression- 
istic judgment, as well as those appraised by actual 
achievement under test. There results a mental scale 
of general ability, adequate to gauge normality and to 
suggest practical standards of superiority or deficiency. 

The question at once arises : how far are the qualities 
desirable for this or that vocation of a general order, 
iand how far are they specific in their demands. In 
this respect vocations differ widely. The musical voca- 
tion exemplifies a specialized profession depending 
upon a proficiency that is largely a dower of heredity; 
yet within this field the psychological test has proved 
its efficiency by determining the still more specialized 
facilities that jointly compose the psychology of the 
musician. In further pursuit of insight the psychological 
laboratory has undertaken to analyze the qualities needed 
for the several specialties of modem vocational life, by 
setting up "test" counterparts of practical occupations, 
by reducing them to their underlying facilities, by test 
ing the correlation of quality and achievement, and by 
combining the clues or verdicts of several methods. Con- 
clusions depend for their value upon logical caution and 
the technical methods which have been developed to 



INTRODUCTION xv 

meet these applications. All this is as yet but a pro- 
gram or a limited beginning in its execution; but it is 
a program well founded in principle and already in part 
available in practice. 

A group of collateral interests supports the enterprise 
and yields valuable results. The interest in unusual 
men has led to the psychograph or psychological analysis 
of the qualities of great men, as an individual study. 
Men fall into types, by temperament and achievement, 
by heredity and career. The type makes definite the 
larger contours of human differences and reveals their 
specific combination ; the charm of biography is psycho- 
logical as well as historical. The vital import of heredity 
— practically expressed in the eugenic movement — ^finds 
recognition in the study of correlation of traits in those 
near of kin. Evolution leads to prediction ; early taste, 
talent, achievement, precocity foreshadow ultimate ca- 
pacity ; we learn how far the child is father to the man, 
how far we may see the future in the early expres- 
sions and with what limitations the environment molds 
character. The most valued because most authentic type 
of biography is autobiography. Self -analysis is intimate 
if unreliable, but by this token worthy of study. Pro- 
fessor HoUingworth's contribution to the measure of 
reliance to be placed upon one's judgment of self in 
comparison with one's judgment of others and others' 
judgment of him forms an interesting original study — 
one of many — incorporated in these chapters. 

Of distinctive status are the tests of ability presented 
by life itself and by the conventional institutions which 
compose the social environment. The processes of educa- 
tion, the rate of advance, the comparative readiness with 
which one or another discipline is absorbed and mas- 



xvi INTRODUCTION' 

tered: these are at once preparations for life and 
accredited tests of ability. For these reasons such 
"school" qualities are subjected to a special study; and 
fairly conclusive results indicate to what measure they 
must be supplemented, if not superseded, by the designed 
psychological test, to meet the conditions of actual selec- 
tion and employment of men. At this point the several 
methods converge ; for the vocations have a vital interest 
in the school, as has the school in vocational application 
of its discipline and training. The actual comparison 
of results, especially by the method of correlation, has 
already established the degree of relation — and even- 
tually of cooperation — ^to be expected of the two. In all 
these ways has painstaking method supplemented and re- 
placed impressionism, haphazard opinion been supported 
or overturned by accumulation of fact, and the scientific 
approach to the study of vocational fitness become firmly 
established. The road from theory to practice, if it is to 
be well built and enduring, must be laid on careful 
foundation. To such an end this volume is a worthy con- 
tribution. 

No question of vocational fitness has been more eagerly 
discussed than the contrasted fitness of men and women, 
and the consequent basis of differentiation of career de- 
sirable or necessary for the two, both as wage-earners 
and in every other relation of life. A discussion of this 
problem from the point of view of this volume is wisely 
included, and in turn a definite negative conclusion 
reached. It is shown that in the main capacities tested — 
with several and significant exceptions — ^men and women, 
boys and girls, are comparable; individual differences 
outweigh sex differences. The interpretation of this re- 
sult will not be uniform, even when due allowance is 



INTRODUCTION xvii 

-made for the range of tests responsible for the conclusion. 
The biologist will continue to insist upon the signifi- 
cance of fundamental differences; the experiences of 
life reinforce as they express the fact that men and 
women live with as well as upon a different perspective 
of psychological equipment; the psychologist may sug- 
gest that the tests and comparisons — ^based in large meas- 
ure upon comparable and derivative facilities — natu- 
rally bring forth the parallel measure in which secondary 
qualities yield similar issues. It must be noted how 
largely a large share of conventional vocations call upon 
specialized and late varieties of intellectual traits; for 
these precisely, men and women may have comparable 
fitness, while none the less psychologically contrasted in 
realms closer to natural function. Women have proved 
that they are as fit to study — and, if you like, to vote — 
as are men; as fit to enter and succeed in vocations in 
terms of tested qualifications. How far the less measur- 
able and collateral qualities make them fit and successful 
on a different basis, and still leave them contrasted in 
fundamental reactions, is a very different question. It 
is well to understand the bearing as well as the range of 
the ascertained facts of the case. 

The modem man and the modern woman live upon 
the upper ranges of their qualities, and in no respect 
more momentously than in respect to those qualities 
exercised and demanded by vocational fitness. In the 
biological sense they are all highly specialized, refined, 
derivative, secondary issues of qualities that had a lim- 
ited scope in the primitive form of life in which the race 
achieved its maturity and established its psychology. 
The problem of civilization is to train these original 
traits of man to the specific cherished purposes of the 



xviii INTRODUCTION 

work of the world. The life of the mind is as highly- 
artificial as the life of the cities ; for such is the condition 
of the twentieth century. Yet the primitive man sur- 
vives and asserts his own ; life is not all vocation. Social 
and industrial complexity dominates the expressions of 
human psychology. To unite a comprehension of their 
foundations with skill in applying their demands is the 
business of the "applied" psychologist. The present 
contribution, it is hoped, will prove a helpful aid to 
those who are striving to understand as well as to those 
who must apply with what wisdom they command, the 
available resources of human nature. 

Joseph Jastrow. 



VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

CHAPTER I 

MOTIVES AND ANTECEDENTS OP VOCATIONAL 
PSYCHOLOGY 

VOCATIONAL EFFORTS OF PRIMITIVE MAGIC 

Among very primitive people we find the recog- 
nition already established that the course of the 
individual 's fortune depends on two distinct fac- 
tors: external forces and personal characteris- 
tics. Individuals similar in type experience dif- 
ferent fortunes because of the different external 
events that attend their respective careers. 
Equally, individuals of however diverse charac- 
teristics suffer the same fortunes at the hands of 
some common or identical external occurrence. 
Two combatants of equal skill and valor are ren- 
dered unequal by a defective lance; two runners 
equally swift are made unequal by a pebble in the 
path; a vigorous babe fails to mature properly 
because of pestilence, war, or famine. On the 
other hand, both old and young, weak and strong, 



2 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

stupid and cunning, are alike reduced to helpless- 
ness in the face of flood, earthquake, and forest 
fire. 

Primitive thinking, in its attempts to control the 
course of personal fortune, thus had its attention 
directed to two groups of factors, each of which 
it sought to control by such means as it could at 
the moment devise. A very early stage of such 
thinking took the form of the belief that desire 
could impress itself on the course of physical 
events and also on the development of personal 
characteristics. The expression of desire, either 
of the individual immediately concerned or of oth- 
ers more remotely involved, was consequently in- 
voked and declared in more or less emphatic and 
overt form as a determining factor in personal 
fortune. In many cases this expression was given 
some indirect or symbolic form, as in gesture, rit- 
ual, tableau, masquerade, and imitative portrayal. 

On the side of physical factors this attempt took 
the form of crude magic, adjuration, sacrifice, and 
incantation, all of which were calculated to dis- 
pose the physical elements favorably toward the 
individual concerned in the ceremonials. Crude 
ritual observances and ceremonies, such as sacri- 
fice, mimicry, and tableau, were believed to influ- 
ence in some occult way the growth of crops, the 



"MOTIVES AND ANTECEDENTS 3 

changes in weather, the health of enemies, the 
movements of game, the supply of fish, etc. A 
typical fishing expedition among the natives of 
the Caroline Islands aptly illustrates this point of 
yiew. The chief oflBcial is not an expert boatman 
nor a fisher, hut the medicine man of the tribe. 
He owes his authority not to his knowledge of the 
habits and haunts of fish, but to his store of in- 
cantations and exorcisms. Various rites are con- 
ducted before embarking. The fishermen must 
leave the island without speaking ; and especially, 
the purpose of the expedition must not be men- 
tioned aloud. A *4uck" formula is pronounced 
over the boat. Sacrifices of special foods are of- 
fered, lest the lines be broken by sharks or tangled 
in the rocks. In Mexico, an elaborate pantomime, 
representing the harvesting of crops, was staged 
annually at a religious festival. This was be- 
lieved sufficient to produce the good crops which 
were desired for the next season. Special dances 
were performed by persons representing the vari- 
ous vegetables which were particularly coveted. 

Among primitive races in almost every part of 
the world one finds magical properties attributed 
to a sort of toy which anthropologists call the 
"bull roarer." It consists merely of a flat stick, 
attached to the end of a cord. When whirled 



$ VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

around it produces a roaring or humming sound 
which easily reminds one of the rumble of wind, 
the roll of thunder, or the distant cry of an ani- 
mal. In various quarters this instrument is used 
in a ceremonial way. Since its sound resembles 
thunder, it is used as a charm against that form 
of physical violence. Because of its resemblance 
to both thunder and wind, it is incorporated in 
elaborate rain-making mysteries. Sometimes it is 
used to drive or call wild or domesticated animals, 
and hence comes to be used as a means of bringing 
luck to hunters. Figures and emblems, carved on 
the slab of wood, are supposed to specify the par- 
ticular kind of luck or fortune which the individ- 
ual seeks. 

On the side of personal characteristics the same 
endeavor took the form of blessings, incantations, 
dedications, curses, prayers and petitions, the 
wearing of symbolic charms and the submission 
of the infant or youth to a variety of prenatal and 
childhood experiences and ceremonials. Thus it 
is believed that by appropriating a dead man's 
spear and thereby expressing a desire for his skill 
and valor, these traits of character will pass to 
the new owner. Boys are tossed into the air to 
make them grow tall, and rubbed with crystals 
and snake- skins to make them clever and intrepid 



MOTIVES AND ANTECEDENTS $ 

medicine men. By scratching lifelike sketches of 
bison, deer, and fish on rocks, walls, and weapons, 
the savage hunter sought to acquire otherwise 
unattainable adroitness and success. ' ' Disease or 
death may be produced by operating on the cut- 
tings of a person's hair, the parings of his nails, 
or the remains of his food, when the person him- 
self is far away. By wearing tiger's teeth a man 
may make himself brave and fierce." By drink- 
ing the blood of bulls he may become stalwart and 
powerful. The Ojibway Indian, in order to hurt 
his enemy and thus further his own interests, 
makes a small image of him and pierces it with 
a needle in the faith that the enemy will suffer. 
In order to terminate the latter 's career he burns 
or buries the effigy, uttering magic words as he 
does so. 

Eemnants of this primitive magic still persist in 
the "psychological underworld," and many an 
old-wives' practice and incantation is in various 
quarters still believed or professed to further the 
course of the individual's fortune, or to jeopard- 
ize it, by rendering natural forces more benign or 
malignant, or by exerting some occult molding in- 
fluence on the infantile abilities and propensities. 
Thus it is not at all uncommon, even in these days, 
for children to be dedicated at birth to the min- 



6 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

istry, the missionary field, the service of the king, 
or to some particular cause or propaganda. A 
woman of the writer's acquaintance, solicitous for 
the future welfare of her babe, read solid and se- 
rious books during gestation in order to balance 
the emotional influences due to her absorption in 
rnnsic teaching during that period. Many prac- 
tices of the most superstitious kind are resorted 
to in order to predetermine the sex, and hence the 
vocational prospects, of children yet unborn. Re- 
liance on prayer as an effective agent in changing 
the course of events or the disposition and habits 
of some other individual is by no means confined 
to savages. Petitions that a neighbor may lose 
his appetite for drink, recover his lost eyesight, or 
find his wallet are as current in modern times as 
are official days of prayer for rain. Seeking to 
influence public opinion by the passing of formal 
resolutions, and modifying character, curing dis- 
eases and prolonging life through ''absent treat- 
ment," the laying on of hands, the contemplation 
of relics, visitation of shrines, and concerted sup- 
plication, are practices which find high warrant in 
contemporary life. The essential idea behind all 
these practices seems to be the simple faith that 
nothing will interfere with the realization of de- 
sire, if only that desire is indicated by a method 



MOTIVES AND ANTECEDENTS 7 

which has official or traditional sanction. The 
true nature of cause and effect and the conception 
of natural law are not yet realized on this level of 
thought. 

THE PRACTICES OF MEDIEVAL CLAIRVOYANCE 

A more advanced stage in the development of 
such thinking is indicated by the recognition that 
both the series of physical events and the indi- 
vidual endowment follow laws which transcend 
the personal desires of men. Nature comes to be 
recognized as a system of facts and connections. 
Both control and foresight henceforth seek to base 
themselves on the utilization of these stable laws 
and relationships. Instead of willing the indi- 
vidual's fortune to be thus and so, there is an 
earnest endeavor to seek for signs and clues of 
what that fortune is inevitably destined to be. 
Fortune-making becomes fortune-telling. The ac- 
cidents and accompaniments of birth, the mo- 
mentary positions of the planets, the calendar 
incidents, the hour or day of birth, the local 
meteorological conditions, birth-marks, stigmata, 
physiognomic and anthropometric characteristics, 
the folds of the flesh, the lines of the hand, the 
mode of birth : every fact that can participate in 
a relation of coincidence with the birth of the in- 



8 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

dividual is selected as a sign of some future state 
of affairs, desirable or untoward, in tlie fortune of 
the individual, of his personal, domestic and oc- 
cupational career. 

Thus, in a recently published guide to character 
analysis based on ancient astrological preten- 
sions, the following characteristics are asserted to 
belong to those who are born in the month of Feb- 
ruary : 

''Those born in this month are very intuitive 
and good judges of character and human nature. 
They are successes in mercantile interests and en- 
terprises. It is said that the best wives are born 
in this month, being always faithful and devoted. 
Great .sincerity and power are possible for those 
born in this month. They rise to great heights 
and on the other hand are inclined to sink to the 
lowest depths. At times they are inclined to be 
melancholy, a tendency which they may overcome. 

"Most February persons have good taste, are 
quick at absorbing information, and intuitive. 
One of their great faults is that they are inclined 
to be intolerant and cannot make themselves think 
from another's point of view. 

' ' Their most common diseases are of the nerv- 
ous and rheumatic orders. They should guard 
their actions on the ninth and sixteenth day of 



MOTIVES AND ANTECEDENTS 9 

eaeH month. Luck day, Saturday. Favorite col- 
ors, all shades of bhie, pink, and Nile green. 
Lucky stones, sapphire, opal, or turquoise. Lucky 
numbers, 5 and 7. They will excel in music and 
art, and should marry with those born in October, 
January, or June. * ' 

Hardly less common than faith in the horoscope 
is belief in the detailed prophecies of palmistry. 
The following is a direct reproduction of para- 
graphs from a well-known metropolitan American 
newspaper, of the year 1915 (a. d.), headed, 
''What Your Fingers Mean:" 

"Shorter palm and longer fingers, these show 
an aptitude for doing small things well. Their 
owners analyze everything, are supersensitive 
over trifles, often feeling unintentional slights. 
When these fingers are slim, as well as longer 
than the palm, they give to one the quality of 
diplomacy. Card sharps and gamblers have these 
long, slim, smooth fingers. The average-length 
fingers with an ordinary-sized palm show a well- 
balanced mind, with a thoroughly commonplace 
nature. When long fingers (with shorter palm)' 
are knotted at the joints we find an extreme love 
for the minor parts of construction, whether it be 
in the building of a bridge or the endless tasks 
pertaining to a kitchen." 



10 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

The same thing happens in the case of the indi- 
vidual's own acts. Every petty move and caper 
is taken to he significant of his future disposition, 
powers, or achievements. The first word the child 
utters, the first ohject for which he reaches, the 
animal he first imitates, the form of his earliest 
play activities, nothing that can be identified and 
described but comes to possess, in someone's 
mind, some peculiar significance and prognostic 
value. "Homely in the cradle, lovely at the ta- 
ble," is an oft-quoted maxim among hopeful 
mothers. "Happy is the bride that the sun shines 
on," has doubtless served to postpone more than 
one nuptial ceremony, and being "born under an 
unlucky star" has equally often afforded a certain 
consolation for personal awkwardness. A father 
of the writer 's acquaintance believed his boy des- 
tined to folic w the career of a druggist or pharma- 
cologist, be »ise, as a child, ' ' he was so fond of 
playing witlf bottles and of pouring water from 
one into the other." Any lack of submissive de- 
votion to a rubber doll is calculated to fill the 
parent's heart with apprehension and dire fore- 
bodings for the domestic peace of his daughter. 
War-babies and infants born on the high seas are 
envied for their romantic prospects. Illegitimate 
children are expected to be idiotic or else to be es- 



MOTIVES AND ANTECEDENTS 11 

pecially gifted with some poetic form of talent. 
Belief in vocational magic and clairvoyance is 
clearly not entirely confined to medieval days. 
Nor is it true that such instances as those just 
cited arise only as material for frivolous conver- 
sations or as journalistic space-fillers in a dearth 
of more serious copy. So firmly are these super- 
stitions established among large classes of people 
that special legislation is required to prevent their 
exploitation at the hands of crafty fakers. The 
fortune-teller is far from being a romantic and 
vestigial institution; and the type of prophecy 
which medieval clairvoyance represents continues 
to provide many with a substitute for more rigor- 
ous and less exciting inquiry. 

MODERN PERIOD OF GUIDANCE AND SELECTION 

However, as knowledge develops, ? third stage 
is reached, in which we may be said i be moving, 
even though somewhat slowly, in Ojii own scien- 
tific and educational work. This stage is marked 
by relative inattention to the series of physical 
events and by special emphasis on the original 
nature of the individual and on changes wrought 
in that original nature through the experiences of 
school life and other forms of educational process. 
The conditions and environmental factors of life 



12 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

have become so plastic that individuals can fairly 
easily find congenial environment and occupa- 
tional material near at home or far from it, if 
only they know for what environment and mate- 
rial their natural powers are best adapted. Mod- 
ern life, whether in city or in country, has become 
so diversified and labor so divided, that a small 
community affords the vocational variety which 
only a few years ago was quite unfamiliar to it. 
Moreover, the various avenues of communication, 
transportation and cooperation have become so 
elaborate that workers in one part of a nation can 
with little difficulty profit by activities and oppor- 
tunities existing in distant places. Each branch 
of industry, commerce and art, as well as each 
professional and occupational activity, provides 
not only for a larger number of workers but for a 
greater variety as well. There is thus a tendency 
for the individual at an early point in his career, 
not only to adapt himself to an environment al- 
ready provided, but to a certain degree to select 
that environment for which his abilities and in- 
terests seem best to fit him. 

Attempts at controlling fortune, as now exer- 
cised, are neither magical nor clairvoyant. They 
take the rational, selective form of fitting the in- 
dividual to the place for which his natural apti- 



MOTIVES AND ANTECEDENTS 13 

tudes best adapt Mm, so far as these facts of 
adaptability are discoverable, and so far as the 
environment is plastic or optional. This is at 
least the description of the process in democratic 
conditions of society. In countries in which he- 
reditary aristocracy and caste systems still exist, 
the fortune of the individual is determined to a 
considerable extent by his birthright, by the oc- 
cupation of his father, above all by sex — all domi- 
nated by tradition. "Within this field of guidance 
and selection, activity has developed rather inde- 
pendently in two different directions. There has 
been on the one hand the notion that all the in- 
dividual needs for a satisfactory occupational ad- 
justment is knowledge of available opportunities, 
and appropriate technical training for the occu- 
pation of his choice. This point of view is seen 
in our own country in the popularizing of general 
education. 

Under this conception general education, in- 
stead of being the prerogative of the ruling or 
moneyed class, is urged as a common right, a so- 
cial duty and an economic necessity. Learning is 
not limited to those who expect to enter the theo- 
logical, medical, legal, or academic professions. 
A certain amount of elementary school-knowledge, 
or at least of school-attendance, comes to be re- 



14 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

quired of every prospective worker. Even the 
feeble-minded are labored with in the attempt to 
bring them up to their highest possible academic 
level. Boys and girls alike are not only urged but 
compelled to equip themselves with the knowl- 
edge of the elementary formal subjects; and the 
community taxes itself to furnish the teachers, the 
books, and the necessary physical paraphernalia. 
In this earlier form of educational theory little 
effort is made to give immediate applicability to 
the subject-matter of the curriculum. Classical 
studies with very little relevance to contemporary 
life; dead languages, with only a feeble claim to 
concrete serviceability; formal exercises in de- 
signing and constructing useless bric-a-brac; triv- 
ial geographical, astronomical, anatomical, and 
military details: these are the subject-matter of 
the *' general education." Back of their selection 
lies of course the doubtful conception that the 
general powers or faculties of the student are 
thereby cultivated, and that these may then be 
brought to bear effectively on any vocational ac- 
tivity which may be chosen. 

The subject-matter is selected, not because of 
its interest or its utility, but mainly because of 
its difficulty and its formal character. Parental 
compulsion, vague social tendencies and impulses, 



MOTIVES AND ANTECEDENTS 15 

petty personal rivalries, fondness for the teacher, 
and general cultural aspiration are relied on to 
facilitate the work of administration and to pro- 
vide incentive. The ^'life-career" motive is but 
little utilized, and tends on the whole to be dis- 
couraged as sordid and commercial. But it is nev- 
ertheless believed that the grammatical, geo- 
graphical, historical, and arithmetical elements 
will in the long run enable the pupil not only to 
enjoy life but to find it as well, or at least to be of 
the greatest possible service in the work into 
which he or she drifts. Only in the case of those 
who are utterly incompetent to deal with the gen- 
eral subject-matter, the feeble-minded, the blind, 
and the deaf, is this formal education willingly 
abandoned in favor of some definitely serviceable 
** industrial" training. 

THE METHODS OF INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION 

Quickly following this effort of the public 
schools to guide every boy and a few girls into 
successful careers through general education, 
came the realization that literary, linguistic, and 
mathematical information alone is inadequate to 
this task. It was felt by many that industrial or 
vocational education, calculated to fit the individ- 
ual directly for his or her life occupation, should 



16 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

be begun at a miicli earlier age than that at wbich 
the group choosing the professions entered upon 
their further studies in the higher technical 
schools. It became obvious that many pupils ter- 
minated their public-school education as soon as 
they had satisfied the minimal requirements of the 
compulsory education law. These engaged at the 
earliest possible opportunity in some unmediately 
gainful occupation. The occupations into which 
they commonly drifted were such as called for 
only a slight amount of intelligence and promised 
proportionately little by way of further equip- 
ment or promotion. They have come to be called 
"blind alley" occupations, and refer to such work 
as that of errand boys, elevator and telephone 
operators, small clerks, domestic servants, nurse- 
maids, messengers, delivery boys, and teamsters. 
Meanwhile those who had continued in school 
and completed the high-school curriculum emerged 
without special vocational fitness, and even with- 
out any knowledge of the vocational possibilities 
of their age and locality. The further develop- 
ment of vocational and industrial education of 
special sorts was then supplemented by general 
instruction in the vocational opportunities avail- 
able. Vocational surveys were initiated for the 
purpose of acquiring information which could be 



MOTIVES AND ANTECEDENTS lY 

placed in the hands of pupils and of those in 
charge of their training. These surveys made 
systematic inquiry into the vocational opportuni- 
ties afforded to young people by the industries and 
enterprises of the vicinity. The assistance of em- 
ployers was sought in the effort to learn the re- 
quirements of the various types of work ; the na- 
ture of the labor involved ; the wages ; the general 
conditions, such as healthfulness, danger, compan- 
ionship, and instruction; the rate of promotion; 
the prospect of future advancement. Such infor- 
mation has in many cases been published in pam- 
phlets and bulletins and thus made accessible to 
teachers, pupils, and parents. 

Along with this tendency went the attempt to 
give the pupil some first-hand knowledge of and 
immediate experience with the materials, imple- 
ments, and products of the various industries 
from among which he or she might be expected to 
choose after leaving the school. This has been a 
difficult step to bring about, partly because of the 
various technical and administrative difficulties 
which it involved. Occasional hasty visits to 
mills, factories, stores, shops, offices, laboratories, 
and similar busy places give the pupil but a su- 
perficial notion of the actual work of the opera- 
tions there observed. More extended and inten- 



18 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

sive observation, on the other hand, with perhaps 
an actual trial at the work, means a correspondhig 
limitation of the range of institutions inspected. 
Talks by managers and foremen are likely to give 
only a dramatized view of the facts. School in- 
dustries, on the other hand, cannot easily be or- 
ganized and conducted in a manner technically 
complete and industrially representative. The re- 
sult has been a growing tendency to push the vo- 
cational training further and further back into 
the earlier years of the curriculum, thus displac- 
ing much of the purely formal subject-matter. 
With this change have come various experiments 
in study-practice methods, in which part of the 
day or term is spent at the general academic work, 
and part in actual service in a tentatively chosen 
form of industrial or commercial activity. 

In this movement but little recognition was 
given to the psychological differences and pecul- 
iarities of the individuals concerned. Knowledge 
of personal aptitudes and capacities, interests, 
and satisfactions, was more or less taken for 
granted in each case, or at least left to develop 
in its own way. It was assumed either that any 
individual could satisfactorily pursue any voca- 
tion in which he might become interested, or else 
that industrial and vocational information alone 



MOTIVES AND ANTECEDENTS 19 

was needed in order to enable the individual to 
malie a suitable clioioe. Nor was tbere any doubt 
that the work which the youth found interesting 
and attractive at the time was the work in which 
he might find a maximum of ultimate success, sat- 
isfaction, and serviceableness. With the voca- 
tional surveys, the industrial schools, and the 
part-time practice methods of education we shall 
not be concerned, in what is to follow. They rep- 
resent a movement of tremendous social and edu- 
cational significance, but their development does 
not immediately concern that other field of work 
which we have designated "vocational psychol- 
ogy." They proceed mainly by giving the indi- 
vidual a knowledge of the external series of facts 
and events, thus replacing the era of fortune- 
telling and clairvoyance, with its search for signs 
and omens, just as fortune-telling had, in its own 
day, replaced the practices of crude objective 
magic. But the methods of industrial and occu- 
pational training have been found to solve only 
one aspect of the vocational problem; and it is 
more and more coming to be realized that a thor- 
ough understanding of the aptitudes which the in- 
dividual brings to his work is as important as 
the knowledge of the opportunities which the en- 
vironment affords. In the remainder of this book 



20 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

we siiall be concerned with the various systematic 
efforts that have been made or are now being 
made to study the individual himself, and to judge 
from a determination of his mental characteristics 
the type of vocational activity which he is best 
fitted to undertake with success. 



CHAPTEE II 

THE SEAECH FOE PHRENOLOGICAL AND PHYSIOGNOMIC 
PRINCIPLES 

THE RISE OF EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE 

The primitive magic, directed toward the for- 
mation of individual character, was displaced 
by the personal clairvoyance which attempted to 
diagnose the individual's mental and moral con- 
stitution on the basis of his own early acts, ex- 
pressions, and physical characteristics. This 
soon gave way to a tendency to abandon, for the 
most part, such signs as did not relate in some 
actual or fancied way, to the individual's brain. 
This limitation of the field of significant signs may 
be related to the widespread interest in human 
physiology, historically associated with the 
knowledge of anatomy. The invention of the mi- 
croscope, Harvey's proof of the circulation of the 
blood, the discussion centering about the automa- 
ton theory of Descartes, and the rapid develop- 
ment of surgical technique, brought about a most 
interesting spread of curiosity concerning the na- 
ture and mechanism of the human body. Balls 

21 



22 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

and tournaments gave way to dissections and 
demonstrations as means of courtly entertain- 
ment. Celebrated surgeons exhibited their skill 
and knowledge, and lectured on the facts of phys- 
iology and anatomy in the formal presence of 
royalty and society. Court painters executed pic- 
tures such as ''The Anatomy Lesson,'^ some of 
them now cherished as famous masterpieces. 

Especially keen became the interest in the skull 
and brain in which, as Descartes taught, might be 
found the seat of the soul. Among the earliest of 
the rough discoveries was that concerned with the 
localization of special sensory and motor func- 
tions of the organism in particular regions of the 
brain. It was observed that irritation of certain 
parts of the surface or ''cortex" of the brain, in 
cases where a portion of the skull had been re- 
moved, was followed by movement of particular 
parts of the body, and that individuals who had 
suffered from injury to certain parts of the brain 
seemed, on recovery, to be quite their usual selves, 
except that certain special capacities, as for in- 
stance the function of speech, were interfered with 
or quite destroyed. The unitary soul, described 
by Descartes as probably having its seat in the 
pineal gland, now bade fair to disintegrate into 
various minor faculties, each with its separate 



THE SEARCH FOR PRINCIPLES 23 

brain mecliamsm and its particnlar abode in some 
region of the skull. 

The discovery of these elementary facts of brain 
localization was at once hit upon with zeal by 
those most interested in the means of foresight 
into human fortunes. Ignoring the fact that the 
localized features were simply the control of other 
parts of the body, as eyes, ears, limbs, speech or- 
gans, and the like, these enthusiasts leaped to the 
conclusion that every trait of character and every 
mental aptitude, every virtue and vice, ability, in- 
terest and capacity, had each its own shelf or pew 
in the brain area. Moreover, it was taken for 
granted that the relative development of these 
various characteristics was indicated by the de- 
pressions, projections and proportions of the 
skull bones. Here was light indeed on the desti- 
nies of men, their fitnesses and propensities, their 
appropriate choice of work and play ! The enthu- 
siasm and ardor that went into the elaboration of 
the new clairvoyance of phrenology would have 
meant most valuable increase in our knowledge of 
brain physiology had it been directed exclusively 
toward further legitimate inquiry. But the ur- 
gent desire for control and foresight was too 
great for practice to keep the slow pace of scien- 
tific fact. 



M VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

Hastily the prophets drew up complicated and 
minute maps of the surface of the cranium and as- 
signed to each recognizable patch some ''faculty" 
which stood for an important mental or moral 
trait. Casual examination of the skulls of friends 
who chanced to possess particularly marked traits 
to an extreme degree was in some cases relied on 
to give guidance in the assignment of these 
patches to the respective traits. In some of the 
schemes the human traits conceived were so nu- 
merous that the bilateral symmetry and functions 
of the brain were ignored, and the two sides of the 
skull were assigned quite different functions. 
Thus arose phrenology, one of the most persistent 
fallacies of vocational analysis. This movement 
was founded by Gall and Spurzheim, two physi- 
cians and anatomists, in the latter part of the 
eighteenth century .^ With the customary naivete 
of the medical science of their time, they overesti- 
mated the significance of casual observations and 
fragmentary discoveries, and thus gave impetus 
to the exaggerated and extravagant claims made 
by their enthusiastic followers. ''Phrenological 

^An interesting review of the origin and development of 
phrenology and other systems of character analysis is given 
by Joseph Jastrow, in an article in Popular Science Monthly, 
June, 1915. 



THE SEARCH FOR PRINCIPLES 25 

societies ' ' developed so rapidly and so widely that 
tlie movement became relatively independent of 
the scientific investigations which should have 
served to qualify and criticize its doctrines. Its 
propaganda were so vigorous and the practical 
needs which it promised to satisfy were so in- 
sistent, that even today many people hold tena- 
ciously to its dicta. Scores of professionals thrive 
on their lucrative practice of its dogmas, and uni- 
versity graduates smile in a guilty way when 
asked, *'Do you believe in phrenology?" 

The tenacious persistence of phrenology, the de- 
gree to which it is resorted to and paid for by in- 
quiring and earnest seekers after satisfactory 
paths through life, make it seem worth while to 
present a brief statement of the numerous errors 
and flagrant stupidities on which the practice of 
phrenology is based. It may also be worth while 
to suggest some of the rather interesting sub- 
sidiary reasons for its persistence as a cherished 
popular delusion and even as a topic for current 
scientific discussions and papers. 

THE ASSUMPTIONS AND ERRORS OF PHRENOLOGY 

Underlying all of the various phrenological sys- 
tems were four common assumptions which, 
briefly stated, were : 



26 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

1. That sucli cerebral localization as exists is 
of fundamental and specific traits of character or 
types of ability, such as secretiveness, circumspec- 
tion, love of babies, generosity, veneration, con- 
structiveness, etc. 

2. That the more developed any one of these 
given traits is, the larger will be the supposed 
area of the brain which contains its supposed 
organ. 

3. That, since the skull fits fairly closely to the 
brain surface, the relative development of a given 
portion of the brain will be indicated by the rela- 
tive prominence or size of the different parts of 
the cranium, so that the degree of possession of 
the trait may be judged from an examination of 
the exterior of the skull. 

4. That the occasional casual observation of co- 
incidence between particularly marked mental 
qualities and particular cranial characteristics is 
a sufficient basis for inferring universal and nec- 
essary connection between these two features. 

Each of these assumptions involves obvious er- 
ror and misapprehension in the light of what is 
now known concerning the nature of the human 
mind and the structure and functions of the brain. 
In order that these fallacies may be clearly dis- 
closed the four main assumptions will be exam- 



THE SEARCH FOR PRINCIPLES 27 

ined independently in the order in whicli we have 
here presented them. 

1. In the first place, the only sort of localiza- 
tion of functions that has been authentically es- 
tablished is the projection, upon the brain struc- 
ture, of the other parts of the organism, and the 
localization of sensory-motor centers which func- 
tion in the connection of these various organs. 
Thus it is known that each of the principal groups 
of muscles of the body has its so-called center in 
the brain. From this part of the brain to the mus- 
cles concerned run bundles of motor-nerve fibers, 
so that activity in that particular part of the brain 
may result in the conduction of nervous impulses 
to these muscles, and in their consequent contrac- 
tion. Thus the hand, the foot, the eyes, the speech- 
organs, etc., may be said to be functionally repre- 
sented, and in this sense localized, in particular 
regions of the brain. The. same thing is true of 
the sense-organs, as the eye, ear, etc. Each in- 
coming sensory nerve tract runs to or through 
some portion of the brain. Injury to this part 
of the brain results in functional incapacity of the 
corresponding sense-organ. The cortex, or outer 
surface of the brain, may thus be conceived as a 
sort of terminal station for nerves from other por- 
tions of the organism, a sort of projection-center 



28 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

which enables them all to take part in a functional 
unity of action. The functions which can be said 
in this sense to be localized in the brain are such 
sensory-motor capacities as the ability to raise the 
right arm, the ability to balance the body when 
standing erect with eyes closed, the ability to see, 
the ability to move the eyeball, the ability to feel 
pain in a certain area of the skin, the ability to 
articulate words, to understand spoken or writ- 
ten language, to call up a visual memory of a par- 
ticular thing previously seen, etc. 

The integrity of various parts of the brain is es- 
sential to the proper coordination of all the sensi- 
bilities and responses of the individual. Traits of 
character and types of ability, however, depend 
on the characteristic modes of reaction of the or- 
ganism as a whole to the factors of its environ- 
ment. Thus generosity as a human trait does not 
depend on the massiveness of any set of muscles, 
nor on the keenness of any sense-organ, but upon 
the characteristic type of reaction and motivation 
which the individual as a whole displays. Jeal- 
ousy, love of children, destructiveness, etc., are 
characteristic modes of behavior of the whole or- 
ganism, and depend upon reactions which the 
given situation evokes, and not upon some special 
organ. 



THE SEARCH FOR PRINCIPLES 29 

2. As to the supposed correspondence between 
size and functional capacity, no evidence lias been 
presented which demonstrates that even the 
strength of a muscle or the keenness of a sense- 
organ depends in any way on the absolute size of 
the brain-area concerned with it. Nor has evi- 
dence been presented to prove the existence, with- 
in any given species, of correlation between vol- 
ume, shape, or weight of the brain-tissues and 
even the more general traits of character or abil- 
ity. In the absence of such evidence we are led 
to believe that functional capacity depends on 
complexity of structure, chemical, molecular, and 
functional, rather than on the factors of mass or 
shape. But even the nature of these correlations 
is as yet largely unknown. The persistence of the 
faith in the significance of mass and shape prob- 
ably rests in part on the apparent existence of 
such correlation when different species are rough- 
ly compared with one another. Thus, among the 
higher vertebrates there seems to be a relation 
between what we may call the general intelligence 
of the species and the erect carriage of the body. 
From the quadrupeds, with their horizontal posi- 
tion, through the apes, with their semiperpendicu- 
lar mode of life, to the human being, with his erect 
carriage, there is also a progression in promi- 



30 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

nence of the forehead, opposition of thumb and 
finger, relatively greater development of the cere- 
bral mass, and also in mental capacity. The in- 
telligent human being walks in a more erect pos- 
ture than does the stupid ape. But no one has 
ventured to assert that a relation exists between 
erectness of carriage and mental ability when hu- 
man beings are compared with one another, or 
when apes are compared with one another. Simi- 
larly in the case of the physical features of the 
brain, the crude relationships which exist empiri- 
cally, as between different species, seem to be quite 
slight in significance when compared with the dif- 
ferences in chemical, molecular and functional 
complexity which are found among members of 
the same species. Attempts to discover correla- 
tions between mental and moral characteristics 
and various brain constants we may expect to con- 
tinue for a long time. What discoveries may be 
in store for us we do not know. But the important 
point in the present connection is that, for the pur- 
poses of vocational psychology, the practices of 
phrenology are based on evidence no more rele- 
vant to its pretensions than were the "proofs" 
pointed to by palmistry, horoscopy, and prenatal 
magic. Through cranial measurements alone it is 
impossible to determine with certainty the race, 



THE SEARCH FOR PRINCIPLES 31 

age, or sex of an individual, or even, indeed, 
whether he was a prehistoric savage, an idiot, or 
a gorilla. 

3. As for the third assumption of phrenology, 
namely, that hrain development is reflected in the 
cranial size or protuberances, it should be suffi- 
cient to point out that even if this were so it would 
be meaningless for our purpose, since we are com- 
pelled to abandon the belief in a relation between 
mass of tissue and even the simplest sensory or 
motor capacity. But such further disproof as may 
be required is readily furnished by an actual at- 
tempt to remove from their cranial boxes the 
brains of various animals, and by noting that the 
shape and thickness of the bones gives little indi- 
cation as to whether brain tissue, cerebrospinal 
fluid, or supporting tissues are to be found under- 
neath a given protuberance or depression. 

4. The fourth assumption of phrenology, that 
sparse and casual observation of striking cases is 
sufficient ground for generalization, we should be 
able to dismiss at once as utterly inadequate and 
miscalculated. It is impossible to find consistent 
recorded instances in which groups of individuals, 
selected at random, with definitely determined and 
measured mental or moral characteristics, have 
been shown to confirm, by their cranial geography, 



32 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

even the most elementary doctrines of that phre- 
nology which still offers to diagnose the individ- 
ual's psychic constitution and to commend to his 
future consideration the vocation of engineering, 
publishing, or preaching, as the case may be. 
Practicing phrenologists have repeatedly been in- 
vited to submit one bit of objective evidence for 
their pretensions, or to submit themselves to tests 
under controlled conditions. The invitations are 
refused, and the inquirer is referred instead to 
the dogma of some foreign and deceased author- 
ity. Such investigations as have been recorded 
have resulted in negative conclusions, or in con- 
tradictory data, or in coefficients with such high 
probable errors as to make the figures unreliable. 

THE PSEUDO-SCIENCE OF PHYSIOGNOMY 

Very often practicing phrenologists and phren- 
ological vocational experts seek to justify their 
operations and pretensions by pointing out that 
they do not rely solely on the cranial geography, 
but more often on other characteristics of the in- 
dividual's body, such as the concavity or convex- 
ity of his profile, the shape of his jaw, the texture 
of his skin, the shape of his hands, the color of his 
hair and eyes, the proportions of his trunk, etc. 
Contemporary vocational counsellors who have en- 



THE SEARCH FOR PRINCIPLES 33 

joyed considerable vogue and commercial repute 
are especially given to citing these criteria; sev- 
eral recently published tables of these clues are 
available. Historically, the attempts to formulate 
principles of physiognomy antedate phrenology 
by many centuries. Logically, however, physiog- 
nomy follows phrenology, as a transition from the 
formulation of structure to the formulation of 
behavior. There is a very widespread belief that 
many mental and moral characteristics betray 
themselves in special facial items. The shifting 
eye, lofty brow, massive jaw, thin lips, large ear, 
protruding or receding chin, dimple, wrinkle, tilted 
nose, thin skin, prominent veins, and many other 
characteristics have come, in fiction and in table- 
talk, to symbolize specific characteristics. The 
same thing is true of the shuffling gait, the erect 
body, the protruding paunch, the curved shoul- 
ders, enlarged knuckles, stubby or elongated fin- 
gers, the short neck, the long arm, and the man- 
ner and rate of stride. It is but a step from these 
to the signs afforded by clothing, its selection, 
care, and mode of wearing. 

Here is indeed a most confused mass of fact 
and fancy which finds credence in varying degrees 
on diverse occasions. Seldom has it been an- 
alyzed into the definite types of material which it 



S4 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

really contains, and its evaluation is conunonly 
left to the haphazard opinion of each individual. 
There is no doubt that we all tend to form our 
opinion of a stranger's probable characteristics 
partly on the basis of these physiognomic, phys- 
ical, and sartorial factors. To what degree can 
these items be formulated so as to afford reliable 
criteria in the analysis of personality, as in the 
case of vocational selection and employment? We 
may perhaps best answer this question by noting 
the various sources of the belief in the validity of 
physiognomic and similar signs. 

1. It is first of all true that many of these marks 
are the result of habitual activity, and in so far 
as they originate in the expression of a trait, they 
may be said to be signs of it. That the studious 
come to be round-shouldered, the cheerful to have 
smooth countenances, the guilty to have furtive 
eye-movements, may well be expected. But it is 
quite another thing to reverse the proposition and 
to take stooped shoulders as a universal sign of 
academic interests, dimples as a sign of guileless- 
ness, and nystagmus as the symptom of a crimi- 
nal past. It is, however, often safe to use these 
traits as reliable signs of the established general 
habits and attitude which they express. We have 
all done this since earliest childhood ; yet any at- 



THE SEARCH FOR PRINCIPLES S5 

tempt to classify formally the signs and effects of 
habit and constant expression would be pedantic. 
Unfortunately for the purposes of vocational 
guidance of youth, these expressions require for 
their formation habits of fairly long standing, and 
the critical period for psychological guidance is 
likely to be passed long before these settled habits 
have set the features into their identifiable molds. 
Somewhat more hopeful is the reliance on ex- 
pressive movements as indicative of passing and 
transient emotional states and attitudes. Not eas- 
ily can we conceal from the astute observer the 
momentary passion that may be stirring us. Pro- 
longed intimate acquaintance with an individual's 
emotional experiences and expressions may in 
time reveal to such an observer the deeper lying 
and more permanent affective trends, the moods 
and sentiments which indicate what we are accus- 
tomed to call the temperament of the individual. 
Insight into the nature of these expressive move- 
ments is one of the useful things to be derived 
from long and patient study of human nature, 
both at first hand and through the classical de- 
scriptions of emotional expression. The more one 
observes and the more individuals he observes, 
the more he is impressed with the final variety and 
informal complexity of these expressive move- 



S6 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

ments, and their dependence on a vast detail of 
circumstance, which again forbid rule-of-thumb 
formulation. 

2. Another apparent source of these beliefs is 
in analogy. The clammy hand, the fishy eye, the 
bull neck, the "blotting paper" voice, the asinine 
ear, the willowy figure, the feline tread, and scores 
of such phrases indicate that these characteristics 
remind us definitely of various species or objects 
other than the human being, and that we expect to 
find back of them the characteristic traits, habits, 
and instinctive tendencies of those species. We 
seldom proceed so far as to check up our expec- 
tations with facts, under controlled conditions. 

3. The affective value of these analogies and 
their incorporation in poetry, song, and fiction as 
adequate figures of speech lead us to react to 
these traits in ways determined largely by the 
traditional usage. We are humble before the 
"high-brow," merry in the presence of the dim- 
pled, cautious and prudent before him of the shift- 
ing eye. In so far as human reactions are deter- 
mined by the implied expectations of associates 
and the demands of immediate circumstances, we 
should be surprised indeed if the "high-brow" did 
not, on the strength of his cranium, evade our 
office-door sentinel, the dimpled one respond to our 



THE SEARCH FOR PRINCIPLES 37 

facetious comment, and he of tlie shifting eye be 
forced to steal for a living. 

4. Another source of these notions is mainly re- 
sponsible for such of them as refer to definitely 
undesirable traits. This is the belief, so well 
played upon by the school of Lombroso in crim- 
inology, that many of these characteristics, along 
with the so-called physical stigmata, are indica- 
tive of a degenerative or atavistic trend in the 
constitution of the individual. Among these stig- 
mata were enumerated every conceivable extreme 
variation of every identifiable part of the human 
anatomy. Lombroso was inclined to believe not 
only that the presence of such traits was a certain 
mark of criminal propensities, but even that vari- 
ous types of criminals could be recognized by the 
cataloging of their stigmata, as thieves, mur- 
derers, forgers, etc. The history of the criticism 
of this view need not be repeated here. Suffice it 
to say that we now understand that the underlying 
truth of the matter is only that these stigmata are 
somewhat more frequent among the vicious, de- 
generate, and defective groups than they are 
among people selected on the basis of their moral- 
ity and intelligence. The criminally inclined in- 
dividual may possess no stigmata, while an Abra- 
ham Lincoln may possess several of them, and in 



38 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

marked degree. To be sure, when an unusual 
number of stigmata are presented by an individ- 
ual, we feel disposed to suspect that the abnormal 
condition is not confined to his bones and periph- 
eral organs alone, but is probably so deep-seated 
as to involve his nervous system as well. But on 
the basis of these stigmata alone we are quite un- 
able to decide whether he is an imbecile, a degen- 
erate criminal, a pervert, a genius, or only an 
average man, with an undue burden of physical 
infirmity; still less can we diagnose his special 
mental or moral qualities. 

5. A further source of these physiognomic be- 
liefs may be discerned : namely, the fact that the 
features of a stranger are very Hkely to call more 
or less clearly to our memory some other ac- 
quaintance whose traits we know, to our sorrow 
perhaps, and whose features or manner or voice 
or apparel chance to be very similar to that of 
the stranger. At once we are inclined to endow 
the stranger with the character of the individual 
he resembles. We seldom accurately check up 
these impressions on the basis of subsequent dis- 
covery. Indeed we are much more likely to evoke 
the suspected traits by our own attitude and by 
our treatment of the stranger, and we are eager 
to pounce upon any act that may be construed as 



THE SEARCH FOR PRINCIPLES 39 

a confirmation of onr snap judgment. It is ob- 
vious that these impressions will vary from indi- 
vidual to individual and that any attempt to for- 
mulate them would expose their fallaciousness. 

6. Finally, in this analysis of the origin of our 
belief in the signs of physiognomy, is the mere in- 
sistence that as a matter of fact there are defi- 
nite relationships discoverable and f ormulable be- 
tween typical features and typical characteristics 
of personality. Beliefs of this dogmatic kind are 
most likely to be exploited by the professional 
counsellor, since they appear to the examinee to 
be unknown, mysterious, esoteric facts. The fol- 
lowing formulations, taken from an account of 
the performance of one of the most widely adver- 
tised of professional vocational counsellors, may 
serve as an example of this type of dogmatic phys- 
iognomic doctrine. 

"The sensitive, delicate-minded man usually 
has a fine-textured skin ; the coarse-minded man a 
coarse-textured skin. It is an embryological fact 
that the skin was and is the original seat of all 
sensations, and that spinal cords and nerves are 
but modified and specialized in-turned skin. Of 
necessity a man's skin indicates the texture of his 
brain. 

' ' Texture is a great classifier of humanity. The 



40 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

individual of fine hair, fine-textured skin, deli- 
cately chiseled features, slender, graceful body 
and limbs, as a general rule, is refined, loves 
beauty and grace, and likes work either purely 
mental in its nature or offering an opportunity to 
handle fine, delicate materials and tools. On the 
other hand the man with coarse hair, coarse-tex- 
tured skin, and large, strongly formed features 
inclines as a general rule to occupations in which 
strength, vigor, virility, and ability to live and 
work in the midst of harsh, rough and unbeautiful 
conditions are prime requirements. 

"It is no secret to observant employers of labor 
that blondes, as a general rule, are changeable, 
variety loving, optimistic, and speculative, while 
brunettes are consistent, steady, dependable, se- 
rious, and conservative. ' ' 

*'It turns out as one might naturally expect that 
the man who resembles the greyhound in form is 
quicker, keener, more responsive, and less endur- 
ing than the man who resembles the bulldog in 
form. 

**A most cursory examination of the portraits 
of poets, educators, and essayists will show a 
marked tendency in them to resemble the triangle 
in structure of the head and body — ^both head and 
body wide above and narrower in the lower por- 



THE SEARCH FOR PRINCIPLES 41 

tions. An examination of the portraits of a hun- 
dred great generals, pioneers, builders, engineers, 
explorers, athletes, automobile racers, aeronauts, 
and others who lead a life of great activity will 
show a general tendency toward structure on the 
lines of the square^ — square face, square body, 
square hands. Reference to the portraits of great 
judges, financiers, organizers, and conomercial 
kings will show a general tendency toward struc- 
ture upon the lines of the circle — round face, 
rounded body and a tendency to roundness in 
hands and limbs. 

''Anything which is hard in consistency has 
comparatively great resistance and persistence. 
That which is elastic in consistency is adaptable 
and seems to have spring, life, and energy within 
it. These principles have been found to apply to 
human beings. ' ' 

The existence of quite definite beliefs in these 
relations between character and physiognomy is 
readily shown by experiments in which groups of 
ten people were asked to arrange twenty photo- 
graphs of women in an order of merit. On dif- 
ferent occasions and by varying groups of ma- 
ture college students, these photographs were ar- 
ranged on the basis of seven different traits, viz. : 
intelligence, humor, perseverance, kindness, con- 



m VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

ceit, courage, and deceitfulness. Different judges 
show quite striking agreement in their estimates 
of the characteristics suggested by a given photo- 
graph. Thus, if the average position assigned to 
■each photograph be taken as the standard and 
the divergences of the ten judges from this stand- 
ard be averaged in the case of all the photographs, 
the average divergences for the different traits 
are as follows * : 

^ To make clear the way in which these figures are secured, 
and to show concretely what they mean, suppose that the 
twenty photographs are lettered A, B, C, D, etc. They are 
to be arranged in an order by each judge according to his 
judgment of the intelligence of the individuals, the individuals 
being unknown to the judges. Suppose that the ten judges 
place photograph A respectively in the following positions: 
9, 11, 5, 8, 9, 12, 7, 8, 7, 14. The average of these ten posi- 
tions is 9, which we then take as the standard or most probable 
position of photograph A. Only two of the judges actually 
place A in the ninth position. The other eight judges all vary 
more or less from this position. We then find how much each 
judge varies from the average of the group, and the ten varia- 
tions are respectively 0, 2, 4, 1, 0, 3, 2, 1, 2, 5 positions. The 
average of these individual variations is 2.0 positions. This fig- 
ure indicates how closely the ten judges agree in their estimates 
of photograph A, a small average deviation indicating close 
agreement. In this way we find for each of the twenty pho- 
tographs its average deviation; and if the twenty figures thus 
secured are in their turn averaged we secure an approximate 
measure of the disagreement of the judges when estimating 
the intelligence suggested by the photographs. Similarly we 
may compute average deviations for any other trait which 
is judged. These final figures are the ones which are given 



THE SEARCH FOR PRINCIPLES 43 



Intelligence 


2.86 places 


Perseverance 


3.32 '' 


Kindliness 


3.55 " 


Conceit 


3.57 " 


Courage 


3.69 " 


Humor 


3.90 " 


Deceitfulness 


4.14 '' 



This means that in the long run a stranger will 
place a given individual in a group of twenty per- 
sons not over three or four positions away from 
the place to which other strangers would assign 
him. The individual's physiognomy, however lit- 
tle it may actually reveal of his personality, nev- 
ertheless suggests rather definite characteristics 
to those whom he meets, and to that degree deter- 
mines their reaction toward him, expectations of 
him, and belief in him. The definiteness or agree- 
ment of these impressions seems also to vary 
with the trait in question; it is high for intelli- 
gence and perseverance, low for humor and deceit- 
fulness, and intermediate for kindliness, conceit, 
and courage. Our own results, however, must be 
taken only as suggestive, rather than as general, 
since they may easily have been determined partly 
by the particular set of photographs we used and 
by our particular and diverse sets of judges.^ 

in the table, each of them being the average of twenty photo- 
graphs as judged by ten persons. 
^ In such experiments the actual magnitude of the measure 



44 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

Results of this character, and many similar ones 
which we are accumulating, suggest, however, an 
interesting set of problems. It is psychologically 
as interesting to inquire just what impressions 
people actually receive from one's physiognomy 
and expression, as it is to ask whether these im- 
pressions are correct. One's ultimate vocational 
accomplishment often depends on the first impres- 
sion he creates, the type of reception his appear- 
ance invites, even though there may be no neces- 
sary connection whatever between appearance and 
mental constitution. Vocational success depends 
not only on the traits one really possesses, but also 
somewhat on the traits one is believed to possess. 

It is also interesting to observe that high corre- 
lations exist between some of the traits as judged 
merely on the basis of photographs. Let 1.00 be 
taken to indicate complete correspondence be- 
tween two orders of merit, so that the highest in 
the one scale is also the highest in the other scale, 
the second in one the second in the other, and so 
on ; then — 1.00 will indicate a completely reversed 
order, the best in one class being the poorest in the 
other, etc.; a coefficient of will mean only a 

of variation becomes larger as the number of judges is re- 
duced, the number of photographs increased, or the photo- 
graphs so selected as to resemble one another more closely. 



THE SEARCH FOR PRINCIPLES 



45 



chance relationship, i. e., none at all. Then from 
1.00 through to — 1.00 we have represented all 
possible degrees of correspondence.^ These fig- 

^ Since such, coefficients of correlation will be frequently 
used throughout the book as measures of ihe amount of corre- 
spondence or relationship between two things, it may be well 
at this point to indicate briafly how they are computed. Sup- 
pose that, as arranged in order on the basis of their final 
averages, the photographs stand in the following positions for 
the two traits — courage and kindliness. 



Photo 


Cour- 
age 


Kind- 
Uness 


d 


d2 




A 


2 


5 


3 


9 


When the several values 


B 


5 


1 


4 


16 


imder d^ are added their 


C 


10 


13 


3 


9 


sum is 376. This, multi- 


D 


1 


4 


3 


9 


pUed by 6, according to the 


E 


7 


6 


1 


1 


formula, gives 2256. The 


P 


11 


8 


3 


9 


denominator of the fraction 


G 


14 


10 


4 


16 


is, siace there are 20 cases, 


H 


20 


15 


5 


25 


7980. Dividing 2256 by 


I 


16 


12 


4 


16 


7980 gives us .28; for 7980 is 


J 


4 


2 


2 


4 


20 times399, which in turn is 


K 


8 


14 


6 


36 


202 — 1. When this is sub- 


L 


3 


3 








tracted from 1.00 it gives us 


M 


12 


20 


8 


64 


.72, which is the measure of 


N 


15 


11 , 


4 


16 


correlation between the two 


O 


17 


18 


1 


1 


orders. Since it is very high 


P 


9 


7 


2 


4 


it suggests that the two 


Q 


6 


17 


9 


81 


traits are judged in much 


R 


13 


9 


4 


16 


the same way. 


S 


18 


16 


2 


4 




T 


19 


19 











A formula is provided by mathematicians which enables us 
to compute the degree of resemblance between these two 
orders. There are, in fact, several formulae for such pur- 
poses, all of which yield substantially the same results. The 



46 



VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 



ures are called '^coefficients of correlation," and 
can easily be computed by proper statistical meth- 
ods. In the present case the coefficients for all 
combinations of two traits are as follows : 



Cour- 



Humor 

Perseverance 
Kindliness. . 

Conceit 

Courage .... 

Deceitfulness. . . —.11 —.28 —.03 —.69 .66 —.49 



It will be seen that the intelligent, humorous, 
persevering, kindly, and courageous countenances 
tend to be the same ones, and that the faces sug- 
gesting the opposites or low degrees of these 
traits also tend to be very much the same ones. 



Intelli- 


Humor 


Perse- 


KindU- 


Con- 


gence 


verance 


ness 


ceit 


.47 










.88 


.33 








.76 


.65 


.39 






.28 


—.03 


.08 


—.56 




.89 


.43 


.79 


.72 


—.25 


—.11 


—.28 


— .03 


—.69 


.66 



uiie used in this case was r = 1.00 



6Sd2 



In this 



n (n^ — 1)' 

formula r stands for the coefficient of correlation for which 
we are working ; d is the difference between the positions which 
each of the photogTaphs receives in the two traits ; 2 means 
the sum of these differences when each has been squared or 
multiplied by itself; n means the number of cases, which is 
in this case 20, since there are that number of photographs. 
When these substitutions are made and the equation solved, 
the result will be the measure of resemblance, which will lie 
somewhere between -f- 1.00 and — 1.00, as explained in the 
text. This calculation is caaTied out here for the two sample 
traits, for the convenience of readers who may not be familiax 
with statistical methods. 



THE SEARCH FOR PRINCIPLES 47 

This is indicated by the high positive coefficients 
between these traits. But conceit and deceitful- 
ness show negative or very low positive correla- 
tion with all traits except each other. In this lat- 
ter case the correlation is positive and high (.66). 
Other interesting relations between these judg- 
ments of character can be inferred from the table 
of coefficients. But it should be remembered that 
we are not here dealing with traits as demonstra- 
bly present, but only as judged on the basis of 
facial characteristics and expression. The actual 
relation between the physiognomic details and the 
true character of the individual displaying them 
is a totally different matter. The close correla- 
tions between the several desirable traits and be- 
tween the several undesirable traits, as found in 
this table of coefficients, seem to have a further 
significance and suggest that the observers do not 
judge each trait on the basis of particular and spe- 
cific physiognomic details. They seem, rather, to 
get a general impression of favorableness or un- 
favorableness, and to rank the photographs on the 
basis of this general impression, no matter which 
trait is being judged. 

It is a common practice for employers, superin- 
tendents, agencies, etc., to request the applicant 
for a position to send his or her photograph for in- 



48 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

spection. The urgency of some of these requests 
and the emphasis placed on them seem to indicate 
that the photograph is believed to be valuable not 
only for its service in revealing the general fea- 
tures but also for some further and more specific 
indications which it affords. Very few attempts 
seem to have been made to test actually the value 
of judgments of character when they are based on 
photographs rather than on acquaintance. Ex- 
periments recently conducted yield some interest- 
ing preliminary data on this question. The ques- 
tion proposed was : "What relation exists between 
the judgments which strangers form, on the basis 
of an individual's photograph, and the judgments 
which acquaintances make on the basis of daily 
familiarity and long observation?" ^ 

All the members of a group of college women 
were judged by twenty-four of their associates, 
for a number of more or less definite characteris- 
tics. The twenty-five individuals constituting the 
group were arranged in an order of merit for each 
trait, by each of the twenty-four judges. Only 
one arrangement, for one trait, was made by any 

^ These experiments were conducted by Lucy G. Cogan, 
M. A., to whom I am indebted for permission to use the results 
in advance of their more detailed publication in her forth- 
coming paper on "Judgments of Character on the Basis of 
Photographs." 



THE SEARCH FOR PRINCIPLES 49 

one judge within a given week. The judgments 
were thus distributed over a considerable interval 
so that judgments for one trait might influence as 
slightly as possible the judgments of later traits. 
All these twenty-four judgments were then aver- 
aged for each trait, and the final position of each 
person in each trait thus determined by the con- 
sensus of opinion of the judges. This measure is 
then a combined estimate on the basis of actual 
conduct and behavior. 

Photographs of all the members of the group 
were then secured, all of them taken by the same 
photographer, in the same style and size. These 
photographs were now judged, by a group of 
twenty-five men and a group of twenty-five 
women, all of whom were totally unacquainted' 
with the individuals who were being judged. 
These strangers arranged the photographs in or- 
der of merit for the various traits of character, 
just as the earlier group of judges had arranged 
the names of the members of the group, with all 
of whom they were acquainted. The various ar- 
rangements of the photographs were then aver- 
aged, yielding for each photograph an average po- 
sition in each trait. We thus have three measures 
of the group of college women: (1) the judg- 
ments of their intimate associates; (2) the judg- 



50 



VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 



ments of twenty-five men, on the basis of photo- 
graphs, and (3) the judgments of twenty-five 
women, on the basis of photographs. All of these 
measures may be compared with each other, and 
correlated so as to show their respective amounts 
of correspondence. The results are as follows : 



Trait 


Judgments by Associates Compared with the 
Judgments of the Photographs 




By 25 Men 


By 25 Women 


Average 


Neatness 


.03 
.10 

.29 
.21 
.30 
.42 
.50 
.60 
.58 
.61 


.07 

.27 
.29 
.45 
.45 
.61 
.52 
.49 
.53 
.69 


.05 


Conceit 


.19 


Sociability 


.29 


Humor 


.33 


Likeability 


.38 


Intelligence 


.51 


Refinement 


.51 


Beauty 


.55 


Snobbishness 

Vulearitv 


.56 
.65 






Average 


.36 


.43 


.40 



The correspondence between judgments of ac- 
quaintance and judgments of photographs is seen 
to vary with the trait in question. Such traits 
as neatness, conceit, sociability, humor, and like- 
ability, important as they are for vocational 
success or failure, show very low correlation. The 
judgments of the photographs tell almost nothing 
at all of the nature of the impression which the 



THE SEARCH FOR PRINCIPLES 51 

individual makes on her acquaintances, her true 
character. With the remaining traits — ^beauty, 
intelligence, refinement, snobbishness, and vul- 
garity — the coefficients are considerably larger, 
and suggest that the photographs tend to be 
judged by the strangers in somewhat the same 
way as the individuals are judged by their ac- 
quaintances. 

Two points of special importance should be 
noted in this connection. The first is that these 
correlations are not between the judgments of sin- 
gle individuals. It is the combined or group judg- 
ment of twenty-five judges which is required to 
yield these coefficients which even then average 
only about .40 correlation with the estimates of 
associates. The following table shows the ability 
of ten judges, chosen at random, to estimate these 
characteristics through the examination of the 
photographs. In securing this table the arrange- 
ment made by each individual judge was corre- 
lated with the established order as determined by 
the estimates of associates, in the case of the three 
traits — intelligence, neatness and sociability. 

These random samples of individual judicial 
capacity show at once how unreliable individual 
judgment is in these matters. The individual 
judges vary widely among themselves and they 



52 



VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 



Individual Correctness of Judges in 
Estimating 




also depart widely from the estabUshed order. 
Moreover, a judge who may happen to show a 
reasonable degree of correctness in judging so- 
ciability may be very far away from correctness 
in judging the other traits, or may, indeed, judge 
in quite the reverse of the correct order. To have 
accepted the verdicts of a single judge would not 
only have been manifestly unfair to the individual 
but also hazardous to the employer. The com- 
bined impressions of twenty-five judges is here re- 
quired for the correlations for even half of the 
traits to reach over .38. 

The second point to be noted is that even under 
these circumstances the coefficients are far from 
perfect, even for those traits in which they are 



THE SEARCH FOR PRINCIPLES 53 

the highest. Only if beauty, snobbishness, or vul- 
garity are the traits which are crucial, are judg- 
ments of the photographs reliable enough to be 
worth considering. It would appear that the voca- 
tions which depend markedly on these characteris- 
tics are exceedingly few. And even here, although 
the reliance on coefficients of .55 might in all prob- 
ability aid the employer in decreasing the per- 
centage of the snobbish or the vulgar among his 
employees, grave injustice would most certainly 
be done to those many individuals who constitute 
exceptions and keep the correlations from being 
perfect. Only when correlation coefficients are 
very high can their indications be applied in the 
guidance of individuals (as distinguished from the 
selection of groups) with safety and justice. 

Dean Schneider reports an attempt to verify 
the principles of a certain system of physiognom- 
ies by putting them to an actual test. He writes : 

*'A group in the scientific management field af- 
firmed that an examination of physical character- 
istics such as the shape of the fingers and shape 
of the head, disclosed aptitudes and abilities. For 
example, a directive, money-making executive will 
have a certain shaped head and hand. A number 
of money-making executives were picked at ran- 
dom and their physical characteristics charted. 



5^ VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

We do not find that they conform at all to any 
law. Also we found men who had the physical 
characteristics that ought to make them execu- 
tives, but they were anything but executives. A 
number of tests of this kind gave negative results. 
We were forced to the conclusion that this system 
was not reliable. ' ' 

We must content ourselves on this point by in- 
sisting that the formulated facts of physiognomy 
are so unsupported, contradictory, and extrava- 
gant that the vocational psychologist cannot af- 
ford to trifle with them. General impressions on 
the basis of the totality of an individual's appear- 
ance, bearing, and behavior we shall always tend 
to receive. Whether one judges more accurately 
by an analytic recording of each detail or by ig- 
noring these in favor of his own more or less un- 
analyzed total impression has never been demon- 
strated. Under any circumstances one is likely 
to look about for such details as may lend sup- 
port to the total impression. But it is quite un- 
justifiable — though perhaps commercially expe- 
dient — to pretend that the judgment is really 
based on the details selected. 

The life of him who bases his expectations of 
human conduct on the physiognomy of his neigh- 
bors is bound to be full of delightful as well as 



THE SEARCH FOR PRINCIPLES 55 

fearful surprises. I shall never forget the prac- 
tical lesson in the principles of physiognomies I 
learned when watching a shipload of immigrants 
pass the physical and mental examinations at Ellis 
Island. Admission to the new land, and to the 
theater of their vocational plans, depended on 
the results of these examinations. EUis Island 
is perhaps the one place in the world where prin- 
ciples of individual psychology are most in de- 
mand, and where such principles as are relied on 
lead to results of the most serious human conse- 
quences. I watched the line file past the prelimi- 
nary gate, by the inspectors who scrutinized them 
still more carefully, and on into the inner room 
where the suspected ones were submitted to more 
searching examination. One young woman stood 
out among her companions as easily the most 
comely and attractive of the women. She was the 
only one of that shipload who was finally certified 
as an imbecile, and refused admission to the main- 
land. 

The physiognomic analyses, then, do not merit 
serious consideration as instruments of vocational 
guidance and selection. The mere facts of physi- 
cal structure, contour, shape, texture, proportion, 
color, etc., yield no more information concerning 
capacities and interests than did the incantations 



S6 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY, 

of the primitive medicine-man or tlie absurd 
charts of the phrenologists. In so far as charac- 
ter and ability may be determined by facts of 
structure, it is by the minute structure of the mi- 
croscopic elements of the brain and other vital 
tissues, about which we now know exceedingly lit- 
tle. We shall therefore dismiss from further con- 
sideration the futile attempts to diagnose mental 
constitution on the basis of bodily structure, and 
turn to the more reliable and scientifically con- 
ceived methods of inferring the individual's men- 
tal traits from his behavior or his actual perform- 
ance when tests are made under controlled condi- 
tions. 



CHAPTER in 

THE DEVELOPMENT OF PSYCHOLOGICAIi TESTS 
ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF TESTS 

Baeeen as phrenology and physiognomies were 
of formulable and useful results, they neverthe- 
less served the purpose of directing attention 
toward the study of individual differences in men- 
tal characteristics as a distinct branch of inquiry. 
The next step consisted in the semi-experimental 
plan of observing the individual's behavior under 
a variety of uncontrolled circumstances or on 
more carefully planned occasions, in the endeavor 
to secure more or less exact quantitative expres- 
sions of the degree to which he displayed certain 
types of ability. Underlying the various abilities 
and involved in them there were assumed to lie 
a limited number of faculties or powers of the 
mind. Each individual was conceived to possess 
much the same faculties, but in varying degrees or 
amounts or forms. Attention, memory, appercep- 
tion, reasoning, will, feeling, etc., were the funda- 
mental "faculties"; and differences in character 

were thought of as depending upon the varying 

57 



58 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

amounts and interrelations of these fundamental 
faculties. In the endeavor to discover types of 
experiment which would measure these ''facul- 
ties" it was found, in time, that a given "facul- 
ty" did not appear, on close examination, to be 
as unitary as it was formerly supposed to be. It 
was seen that to have a good memory for one 
kind of material did not at once signify a good 
memory for every sort of thing. Determination 
in one direction did not imply the general quality 
of resoluteness. It began to be realized that at- 
tention, memory, discrimination, and the other 
"faculties" are very much more highly special- 
ized than these general names indicate. The uni- 
tary soul had early been split up into the Kst of 
"faculties" or categories, and now these in turn 
came each to be split up into finer and finer apti- 
tudes and tendencies, until, in the radical reac- 
tion of recent years, we find the human mind de- 
scribed as made up of an infinite number of inde- 
pendent connections or bonds between more or 
less specific stimulus and more or less definite re- 
sponse. The old "faculties" came now to be 
looked on as descriptive terms for certain 
rather general and abstracted characteristics of 
these muttitudinous and detailed reaction ten- 
dencies, rather than as in themselves agents or 



DEVELOPMENT OF TESTS 59 

powers or forces, as they were formerly conceived. 
During this change in theoretical description 
and continuing into our present era of compro- 
mise and revision, methods were developed of 
measuring the amount and quality, or, more 
simply conceived, the speed, strength and regular- 
ity of mental and motor ability. Beginning in the 
form of experiments on sensory discrimination, 
reaction time and imagery type, and combined 
with physiological measurements of motor 
'Strength, rapidity and fatigue, these experiments 
developed, in certain hands, into what are now 
known as ''mental tests." Since the principle 
and method of mental and physical tests is the 
chief characteristic of the present status of voca- 
tional psychology, and since the work of the im- 
mediate future seems destined to develop mainly 
in this same direction, we may profitably consider 
at this point the history and development of the 
mental test. We may later take up the general 
principle and theory of the test as an instrument 
of psychological analysis and diagnosis, with spe- 
cial reference to the requirements and implica- 
tions of such tests as may be of service in voca- 
tional psychology. We shall then be in position 
to review the special vocational tests that have as 
yet been proposed, to evaluate their outstanding 



60 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

results, and to point to some of the more immedi- 
ate prospects and problems under consideration 
by those interested in the application of psycho- 
logical tests in vocational analysis and guidance. 

We may begin with an account of the first defi- 
nite attempt to explore systematically the person- 
ality of individuals by the method of tests. The 
"Columbia Freshman Tests" are of especial in- 
terest in the history of vocational psychology, 
since in their formulation and plan explicit 
thought was given to the practical use to which 
the results of tests might be put by the individ- 
uals examined, and by the statistical study of the 
results by students of the subject. In 1894, under 
the guidance of Professor Cattell, there was insti- 
tuted the plan of testing the students of Columbia 
College during their first and fourth academic 
years. A description of the tests employed was 
published by Cattell and Farrand in 1896, and a 
statistical study of results was published by Wis- 
sler in 1901. 

The motive back of these tests is well ex- 
pressed in the following paragraph which was 
also used as material for a test of logical mem- 
ory: 

"Tests such as we are now making are of value 
both for the advancement of science and for the 



DEVELOPMENT OF TESTS 61 

information of the student who is tested. It is of 
importance for science to learn how people differ 
and on what factors these differences depend. If 
we can disentangle the complex influences of 
heredity and environment we may be able to apply 
our knowledge to guide human development. 
Then it is well for each of us to know in what way 
he differs from others. We may thus in some 
cases correct defects and develop aptitudes which 
we might otherwise neglect." 

The nature of these Columbia tests and the 
method of recording and reporting them are indi- 
cated in the forms which were printed and used 
for this special purpose. (Samples of these are 
given in the Appendix.) They are given here not 
so much for the sake of the enumeration of the 
tests, since many of these are no longer in com- 
mon use, but because of their historic interests 
for vocational psychology and because of the gen- 
eral plan outlined in them. In general this plan 
is that of accumulating measurements of a large 
number of individuals and thus showing each one 
how he compares with the normal or average, or 
where he stands in the general curve of distribu- 
tion of the members of the group. These tests 
were applied to the same individuals on their en- 
trance to and their graduation from college, in 



62 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

order to indicate changes that might have been 
made during the intervening period. 

Especially interesting also are other blanks con- 
taining additional data, such as age, health, phys- 
ical characteristics, physiognomic features, enu- 
meration of stigmata, etc. In addition to the tests 
and measurements, the examiner, both before and' 
after the interview, recorded his general impres- 
sion of the individual, in the terms indicated on 
the blank form. We shall have occasion to refer 
to these judgments of general impression in more 
detail when we come to consider the use of the 
interview and the testimonial in vocational psy- 
chology. Account was also taken of the gym- 
nasium records of the student, as to nationality, 
birth, parentage, habits, health, etc. 

The Columbia tests may be thought of as repre- 
sentative of several similar projects developed in 
this country and in Germany, France and England 
by many workers. The names of Galton, Cattell, 
Kraepelin, Binet, Henri, and Jastrow stand out 
conspicuously in the early history of mental tests. 
The first step was thus the invention, description 
and trial of a great number of miscellaneous tests, 
with little analysis of the tests themselves, the 
nature of the functions tested by them, or their re- 
lation to each other. Aside from the strictly 



DEVELOPMENT OF TESTS 63 

motor and physical tests those devised were 
mainly of so-called intellectual character: meas- 
urements of speed and accuracy with which cer- 
tain definite tasks could be accomplished. They 
were, moreover, very simple in character, not 
necessarily related to the work of daily life, with 
only a single or but a few trials made on each indi- 
vidual. Tests of affective and volitional factors 
were slower in developing. Little account was 
taken of interests, instinctive and emotional char- 
acteristics, attitudes, adaptation, methods of at- 
tack, limits of ability after practice, or many other 
aspects of individuality which later work has 
shown to be important. 

The next step in the development of tests con- 
sisted in the cooperative effort to standardize the 
nature and methods, the conditions and mode of 
record. Many hands had part in this process, 
until in recent years, through publication, com- 
parison and discussion of the subject, fairly uni- 
form principles of technique, record, and treat- 
ment of measures have been agreed upon. This 
made possible the comparison of results secured 
by different investigators, and facilitated the 
statistical treatment of the data, so that later 
work might profit by what had already been tried 
or accomplished by earlier workers. After many 



m VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

years of this sort of cooperative work, another 
series of studies was inaugurated to attempt what 
has come to be known as ''testing the tests." 
These studies proceeded by examining into the 
degree to which the various tests correlate with 
each other, with other indications of the individ- 
ual's ability, with age, sex, health, education, 
school standing, special training, etc. Such ques- 
tions as the following will suggest the problems 
involved in ' ' testing the tests. ' ' 

1. Which of the various tests correlate with 
each other? 

2. What correlation exists between mental and 
motor abilities ? 

3. Do the tests measure fundamental qualities 
or general powers of the individual, or specialized 
capacities, or perhaps mainly the effect of gen- 
eral or special training? 

4. If they measure general qualities, which of 
the existing tests are the best for this purpose? 

5. How many trials are needed to afford a re- 
liable index of the individual's ability? 

6. What are the principal incidental factors 
that influence the result of tests? 

7. Which tests are most easily influenced or 
disturbed by extraneous factors? 

8. Can tests of the simpler laboratory type be 



DEVELOPMENT OF TESTS 65 

used to indicate tlie individual's ability as shown 
in his daily work and play? 

9. How simple or complex should the various 
tests be in order to give the best results'? 

10. How many tests, and which, are required to 
give a fairly correct picture of the individual's 
psychological make-up? 

11. To what degree do preliminary trials indi- 
cate the final capacity of an individual? 

12. Does the intercorrelation of tests change in 
any way with practice, repetition, and familiarity 
with the material? 

13. Just what mental functions may the par- 
ticular tests be said to measure ? 

14. How important are these functions in prac- 
tical, educational and vocational life? 

15. By what amounts and in what various ways 
do individuals differ among themselves in such 
abilities as the tests measure? 

16. Are there other important aspects of psy- 
chological constitution and equipment for which 
there now exist no adequate tests? 

The investigation of these numerous problems 
has resulted in the accumulation of a considerable 
literature of mental tests. Many of the earlier 
forms of tests were abandoned because of their 
unsatisfactory or meaningless character. Others 



66 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

have been retained and improved in form, and 
many new ones are constantly being devised and 
elaborated, described and standardized. Tbe pre- 
cautions to be observed, the instructions to be 
given, and the methods of record and interpreta- 
tion have been presented in various books and 
manuals. The tests have been developed for more 
and more complex functions, and now relate not 
only to relatively simple capacities but to highly 
elaborate and subtle forms of achievement. As 
rapidly as is consistent with accuracy, norms and 
standards of performance for different ages, 
school grades, vocational requirements, etc., are 
being accumulated and reported. Typical charts 
of age norms in selected tests are given in the 
Appendix. 

As the tests have thus developed they have been 
organized for a variety of special purposes, such 
as for school measurement, educational diagnosis, 
clinical examination, laboratory experiment, and 
more recently for the purposes of vocational guid- 
ance and selection. Among the first of these to de- 
velop systematically, and also the ones with the 
most immediate vocational application, are the 
graded intelligence scales, which shall be our next 
concern. 



DEVELOPMENT OF TESTS 67 

GRADED INTELLIGENCE SCALES AND NORMS 

An important step in the history of general 
tests is represented by the accumnlation of norms 
and standards of performance for the different 
selected tests, and the arrangement of scales of 
tests with increasing difficulty, as further aids in 
fixing the individual's status. 

After a standardized and tested form of test 
has been selected, norms of performance are ac- 
cumulated by applying the test to large numbers 
of persons of the same general type. The classifi- 
cation may be on the basis of age, school grade, 
occupation, nationality, etc. In this way it be- 
comes possible to determine for a given individual 
how he compares with other members of his group; 
whether he is above or below the average, and 
how far ; whether he would belong among the best 
ten, or the poorest ten, or the third ten, etc., of 
one hundred selected at random. Such norms 
also reveal to what degree the tested ability varies 
with the other factors, on the basis of which the 
group was selected, as age, sex, education, size, 
health, race, etc. 

As rapidly as reliable norms are established, 
it becomes possible to select for each age, school 
grade, occupation, etc., a set of tests which the 



68 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

average person of that age, schooling or calling 
should be able to perform to a certain known de- 
gree of proficiency. Failure to accomplish this 
indicates performance lower than that expected 
and in so far as success is dependent solely on 
mental ability, indicates inferior capacity. Sim- 
ilarly, ability to do more than the average or 
normal record requires indicates a capacity that 
is precocious, rare, and superior. 

In this way are derived standard graded scales 
which represent a decided advance in the science 
of psychological diagnosis. There are three rather 
different forms in which attempts have been made 
to secure such scales. In one form the scale con- 
sists of a series of steps, each step consisting of 
different sorts of performance; that is, different 
tests or tasks are used. These tasks are arranged 
in groups, each group representing tests which 
should be passed acceptably by individuals of the 
given age, school grade, etc. In another form of 
scale the type of task is the same throughout, but 
the different points on the scale are represented 
by increasingly difficult specimens of material. 
The scale thus presents graded steps of difficulty 
in doing the same general sort of thing. In the 
third form the task remains precisely the same 
throughout, and performance is measured in terms 



DEVELOPMENT OF TESTS 69 

of the time in which the task can be completed and 
the accuracy which is displayed. Sometimes, in 
scales of this type, although the instructions are 
always the same, the test is performed with vary- 
ing degrees of approximation to a qualitative 
standard, and the steps may then consist of these 
graded qualitative achievements. 

As representative of the first form of scale we 
may refer to the widely used Binet-Simon scale 
for the determination of mental age. Whatever 
we mean by intelligence, it is a characteristic 
which is essential to vocational activity. It is 
furthermore a characteristic which normally tends 
to increase in its degree or manifestation from 
infancy up to at least ten or twelve years of age. 
Beyond that point there are, to be sure, striking 
individual differences in that characteristic which 
we call intelligence, but beyond this point it does 
not seem so dependent on the physical age of the 
organism. Five-year-old children tend to be 
pretty much alike in intelligence. At least, the 
change from five years to seven years is com- 
monly attended by very apparent growth in this 
respect, and a five-year-old is more like other five- 
year-olds in the things he can do than he is like 
seven-year-olds. 

Experiment and observation show that the ages 



70 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY" 

up to ten or twelve tend to indicate rather definite 
mental status, in the long run, although, to be 
sure, children of a given age vary considerably 
from one another. But beyond this point the age 
of an individual is not by any means an indica- 
tion of the sort or degree of ability to be expected 
of him. The further we go beyond this point, the 
less significant becomes the mere statement of the 
individual's age. We may thus indicate the men- 
tal attainment of a child of less than twelve years 
by stating the average age of children who can 
do the things, know the facts, display the abili- 
ties that he can. This figure we will use to indi- 
cate his mental age as distinguished from his 
chronological or physical or actual age. A record- 
blank which enumerates the tests comprising the 
Binet-Simon scale is given in the Appendix. 
Those who may be interested in using this or sim- 
ilar scales should familiarize themselves with 
some of the many books and manuals that have 
been written concerning them, the methods of us- 
ing them, their characteristic results and their 
evaluation. These scales will be again considered 
in a later section, when we discuss the measures 
of general intelligence as they relate to vocational 
guidance and selection. 
Other scales than the Binet-Simon series have 



DEVELOPMENT OF TESTS 71 

been proposed, and this series has itself under- 
gone modifications at the hands of later investi- 
gators — changes calculated to render it more relia- 
ble and adaptable. Much work is now being done 
in the attempt to develop scales or sets of tests 
which will reveal characteristic differences among 
people whose mentality has gone beyond the point 
which the juvenile scales reach. 

The work of Trabue in standardizing the ' ' com- 
pletion test" so that individuals may be quanti- 
tatively compared on the basis of it may serve as 
an example of the second form of scale. This par- 
ticular test consists in requiring the individual to 
supply meaningful words or phrases in the blank 
spaces formed by mutilating logical text. It is 
similar to the simple exercise sometimes found in 
elementary text books of grammar and spelling. 
It seems that the ability to supply the missing 
words or phrases quickly in such mutilated ma- 
terial calls for the exercise of a type of ability 
which correlates to a high degree with most other 
measures of intelligence. Individual differences 
as shown by school grades, age, opinion of teach- 
ers, estimates of associates, results of other men- 
tal tests, etc., are readily and with considerable 
reliability revealed in the individual's ability to 
perform this type of test. This investigator has, 



72 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

after much preliminary labor, constructed a form 
of tMs test in which the material gradually in- 
creases in difficulty from beginning to end. Efi&- 
ciency in the test may be measured by the point 
one can reach in the text in a given time. This test 
has been standardized, not on the basis of physical 
age, as in the case of the Binet-Simon scale, but 
on the basis of school grade, from the second 
grade through the high school, some four or six 
years beyond the point where the Binet-Simon 
scale ceases to be useful. A copy of this test is 
also given in the Appendix. Those who wish to 
use it should consult the original description of 
it, for technique, precautions, norms, and inter- 
pretation. 

A good example of the third form of scale is to 
be found in Sylvester's standardization of the 
"form-board" test. The ' 'form-board" is one of 
the most useful tests in detecting intellectual de- 
fect that is so pronounced as to constitute the 
individual a '' mental defective." Out of a solid 
base board are cut various geometrical forms, 
such as diamonds, stars, squares, triangular 
blocks, etc. These blocks are placed alongside the 
base from which they have been cut. The task is 
that of replacing all the blocks in their appro- 
priate places, with the greatest possible speed. 



DEVELOPMENT OF TESTS 73 

The test tends to reveal characteristic defects in 
understanding instructions, perceiving the gen- 
eral and specific situations, profiting by experi- 
ence, recognizing form and size and other space 
relations, etc. The individual may work blind- 
folded or may use his eyes. 

In the standardized form the sizes, shapes and 
positions are uniformly adopted and the technique 
of instruction and procedure is specified. Under 
these conditions the time required to complete the 
task by normal children of the ages five to four- 
teen years has been recorded. Sylvester presents 
a curve based on the examination of 1,537 normal 
children. The curve shows the average time of 
performance for each age and also indicates the 
range of performance for each age. In the case 
of a given individual it is thus easy, by referring 
to the standard table of norms, to determine 
whether he is up to the normal record for his age, 
whether he is within the normal range of varia- 
tion for this age, and how deficient or precocious 
he may be in this respect. Tables of this type are 
now being accumulated for a great variety of sin- 
gle standard tests. 

In addition to scales of this type, which proceed 
by setting for the individual a graded series of 
tasks and determining his success in their accom- 



74 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

plishment, there is a further type of graded scale 
which is now represented by several standard 
specimens. This is the type of scale which is de- 
signed to afford an instrument for the measure- 
ment of such products as the actual work of 
the individual incidentally yields. Thorndike's 
''Scale for the Measurement of Handwriting" is 
the model on which many of the later scales of 
this type have been based. In this scale actual 
specimens of handwriting are arranged in a grad- 
uated series in such a way that the steps from 
specimen to specimen are equally appreciable or 
noticeable, and in this sense uniform. When such 
a scale extends from an actual zero point, it is 
possible to "measure" the quality of handwriting 
in quite the same way as that in which one meas- 
ures the height of an individual or the length of a 
table. The quantitative measure consists in the 
statement of the number of stages which intervene 
between that quality of product represented by 
the specimen and the zero point of the scale. The 
position assigned to the specimen being measured 
is determined by moving the specimen along the 
graded series of standards until a point is reached 
where the specimen seems, on the basis of direct 
inspection, to belong. Such scales have been for- 
mulated for various special forms of school work, 



DEVELOPMENT OF TESTS 75 

such as handwriting, drawing, arithmetic, literary 
composition, mechanical construction, etc. By 
such means it is possible not only to measure the 
*' general intelligence" of the worker, but also his 
actual ability in creating a definite type of prod- 
uct. There seems to be no limit to the possibilities 
of scales of this form, and their value in deter- 
mining the more definite and particular capacities, 
whether from the point of view of original endow- 
ment or from the point of view of the effects of 
training, is obvious. 

These various scales for measuring general in- 
telligence have been used chiefly for the purposes 
of educational diagnosis, in determining the de- 
gree of backwardness of children in the grades, 
their need for special educational attention, or the 
hopelessness of further pedagogical effort with 
them. But it is obvious at once that tests of this 
type are of great use to an employer in eliminat- 
ing, from among the candidates for work, those 
who are hopelessly mentally defective, feeble- 
minded, and irresponsible. There are many sorts 
of work in which the employment of feeble-minded 
persons, unrecognizable as such by their physical 
traits or by a casual inspection, not only entails 
loss and annoyance but may constitute a positive 
danger and constant menace to those who rely on 



76 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY: 

the defective individual. Such work as that of 
delivery boys, messengers, domestic servants, 
nurses, elevator operators, drivers, motormen, 
etc, may be cited as instances of work into which 
the feeble-minded easily slip, unless there is some 
standardized means of recognizing them. 

The importance of detecting these incompetents 
and keeping them from work in which their irre- 
sponsibility means economic waste and personal 
and social danger is of distinct vocational inter- 
est. Studies of cases brought to the Clearing 
House for Mental Defectives in New York City 
show that of the first two hundred and eighty-one 
feeble-minded women of child-bearing age, about 
two-thirds had been engaged in some form of eco- 
nomic labor in which their incompetence was dis- 
tinctly dangerous to those associated with them. 
The following table shows how these two hundred 
and eighty-one feeble-minded women had been 
employed : 

Living at home and assisting at simple tasks . . 94 

Domestic service (families, bars, hotels, etc.) . . 67 

Engaged in factory operations , 21 

Living in institutions, reformatories, asylums 20 

Prostitutes , 30 

Laundresses 5 

Working in stores, clerking, errands, etc 5 

Nursemaids 9 



DEVELOPMENT OF TESTS 77 

Odd jobs 6 

Married and keeping house. 11 

Housework, with relatives 13 

The investigators originally reporting these 
data write as follows: ''These defective w^omen 
had borne eighty-nine illegitimate children, which 
were acknowledged and could be somewhat defi- 
nitely located, and sixteen women were illegiti- 
mately pregnant at the time of their examination 
at the Clearing House. Twenty-four of the two 
hundred and eighty-one had married and these 
had borne forty-six legitimate children. The aver- 
age mental age of the illegitimate mothers was 
nine years." 

The employment of feeble-minded women as 
domestics, factory operatives, laundresses, clerks, 
and nursemaids constitutes not only a nuisance to 
the general public, but a real source of inefficiency 
and danger to the community. Graded scales for 
the measurement of intelligence will have amply 
repaid the labor devoted to their formulation if 
they aid us in the proper segregation and voca- 
tional supervision of the mentally defective. The 
feeble-minded boy is more likely to be observed 
in the natural course of things, because of the 
more strictly competitive types of work into which 
boys customarily go, but it is far from realized 



78 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

how mucli loss of property, life, and general hap- 
piness is entailed upon the community by the in- 
discriminate employment of untested boys and 
men as floating employees. 

But the vocational value of the graded intelli- 
gence scales and norms is not limited to the work 
of detecting and eliminating the feeble-minded. 
Many of the tests as now standardized yield meas- 
ures of intelligence, capacity and comprehension 
ranging far above the level which constitutes the 
borderline of mental defect. Some of them reach 
somewhat higher than the average intelligence and 
capacity of the college freshman. It is thus pos- 
sible, through the use of the graded scales, to 
measure in quantitative terms the general intel- 
ligence as well as various more special capacities 
of applicants and candidates for positions for 
which general intelligence is the chief requisite. 
Such tests are now used in many places in the se- 
lection of clerical workers, telephone operators, 
stenographers, waitresses, motormen, salesmen, 
office help, inspectors, watchmen, soldiers, and 
special types of factory workers. Thus Trabue 
reports a study in which Professor Scott tested 
thirty efficiency experts employed by a large in- 
dustrial concern in New England. Ten psycho- 
logical tests were used, including a completion 



DEVELOPMENT OF TESTS 79 

test. The men were also judged on the basis of 
their relative abilities by the members of the firm. 
The combined tests correlated with the combined 
judgments, giving the very high coefficient of .87. 
The completion test alone yielded a coefficient of 
.64. From the point of view of vocational selec- 
tion we may expect the principle of the graded 
intelligence scale to become increasingly valuable 
as more and more norms are established. The 
first definite contribution of vocational psychology 
is thus not so much toward the guidance of the 
individual worker as for the guidance of the em- 
ployer who may be required to select from a num- 
ber of applicants those whose general intellectual 
equipment is most adequate. But we shall later 
have occasion to point out a further contribution 
which this makes possible, in so far as it may en- 
able us to classify the operations involved in vari- 
ous types of work and to align these operations 
and tasks along the general intelligence scale. 
Such alignment will enable us to specify the ap- 
proximate degree of general intelligence which a 
given position demands, and thus, in the case of 
the simpler tasks, afford a means of vocational 
guidance as well as vocational selection. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE PSYCHOGRAPHIC METHODS 
THE INDIVIDUAL PSYCHOGRAPH 

Anothee application of mental tests has a very 
direct interest for vocational psychology. This 
is the method of the "psychograph," as it is com- 
monly called. The French and German psycholo- 
gists especially have been active in advocating 
the practice of submitting to careful and detailed 
experimental examination the physical and men- 
tal characteristics of men who have achieved 
marked success in their chosen vocations. By the 
application of this clinical method to men of su- 
perior attainment it is hoped that light may be 
thrown on the psychological foundations of their 
genius and, in general, on the relation between 
mental traits, as shown in the results of psycho- 
logical tests, and actual success in life's work. 
This psychographic method represents the earli- 
est methodical attempt to differentiate the various 
vocations from one another on the basis of spe- 
cial aptitudes and characteristics, as distinguished 

from the factor of general intelligence. Dr. E. 

80 



THE PSYCHOGRAPHIC METHODS 81 

Toulouse has already published reports of such 
examinations or psychographs in the cases of 
Zola, DaloUj and Henri Poincare. It is the inten- 
tion of this investigator to continue this line of 
work, utilizing from time to time such refinements 
of technique as may be available. As an illustra- 
tion of the psychographic method, an account of 
the study of the eminent mathematician, Poincare, 
may be given in some detail. 

The investigation of Poincare took account of 
such special topics as heredity, development, phys- 
ical condition, sensory acuity, various kinds of 
memory, attention, imagery, reaction time, asso- 
ciation of ideas, language and handwriting, char- 
acter, habits and opinions. Although the tests 
followed a technique which the investigator rec- 
ognized to have been quite imperfect and frag- 
mentary, they are said to have yielded results 
quite sufficient to characterize the intellectual type 
of the man. The account of the tests is followed 
by a synthesis in which is attempted a general 
picture of Poincare 's type and an interpretation 
of the conditions of invention and speculative 
genius. 

From the point of view of heredity, develop- 
ment and general vital characteristics Poincare 
was found to resemble most his mother and grand- 



82 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

mother, who, with collateral relatives, are said to 
have shown special aptitude in mathematical cal- 
culation. Several male members of the family 
have had successful careers in neurology, law, 
meteorology, politics and mathematics. Poin- 
care's development was not precocious, although 
he was bright and showed, when quite young, 
mathematical ability of an unusual order. His 
history, up the age of thirty years, at which time 
he was elected to the Academy of Sciences, was 
not unlike that of many other mathematicians 
whose freedom from the necessity of experiment 
allows them to make rapid progress. He was at 
one time troubled with rheumatism, and in his 
childhood suffered from an attack of diphtheria, 
followed by paralysis. This attack is said to have 
profoundly modified his nervous system, perhaps 
providing the neuropathic basis for traits shown 
later in life, such as awkwardness, restlessness, 
flighty attention, distractibility and general sen- 
sori-motor deficiency. 

A physical examination which dealt mainly with 
anthropometric measurements, strength tests, 
and with an inquiry into habits of eating, sleep- 
ing, and the use of narcotics, revealed nothing 
very unusual. Poincare had head measurements 
somewhat larger than the average. He was trou- 



THE PSYCHOGRAPHIC METHODS 83 

bled with indigestion, also with insomnia. He 
did not use tobacco, and indulged only sparingly 
in wine and coffee. He was able to work for but 
four hours a day, in two-hour periods, and the 
tendency to automatisms and the perseverance of 
psychic activity compelled him to cease work for 
some time before retiring. He disliked muscular 
exercise except for the automatic processes in- 
volved in walking. His absent-mindedness was a 
matter of common comment among his associates. 
The examination of his sensory and motor ca- 
pacity showed Poincare to have been rather feeble 
from a sensory point of view. Hearing was de- 
fective for low tones, but auditory orientation and 
localization were fair. He was shortsighted, but 
had no astigmatism; tests of the field of vision 
showed no abnormality. Muscular weakness of 
the eyes was present, which led to accommoda- 
tion spasms. His general bodily movements were 
characterized by uncertainty, irregularity, awk- 
wardness and hesitancy, and his muscular reflexes 
were prominent. 

The greater number of the tests had to do with 
more strictly mental characteristics. Poincare 
had no visual images or memories, except in the 
transition state between waking and sleeping, 
when he had frequent visual hallucinations of re- 



84. VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

markable distinctness. In Ms waking life he re- 
lied chiefly on motor images and tendencies, think- 
ing of geometrical forms in terms of optical or 
manual movements. He had no visual ' ' schemes, ' * 
but represented time, in his thinking, by a rota- 
tion of the eyes on their axes. In his youth he 
had pronounced colored hearing, which was 
evoked not by the form but by the sound of letters 
and words. He had no other synesthesias. Tests 
of recognition memory for length of lines, re- 
production of drawings seen once, etc., are said 
to have shown exceptional memory capacity. The 
memories were held with the aid of motor imagery, 
and the reproduction was often not from the 
image but on the basis of an analysis of the ma- 
terial which had been presented to him. He had 
a memory span for digits of about eleven, as com- 
pared with the ordinary record of about eight. In 
the case of letters he had an auditory memory span 
of nine, and a visual span of seven. Mechanical 
memory did not seem to be particularly good, and 
much emphasis is laid on Poincare's tendency to 
use memory devices when remembering this non- 
logical material; he employed analysis and inci- 
dental schemes whenever possible. He had a * ' re- 
markable facility in mental calculation, ' ' which is 
said not to be the rule with mathematicians. In 



THE PSYCHOGRAPHIC METHODS 85 

tests of logical memory he was superior to both 
Zola and Dalou, and here again his memory was 
found to be analytical and artificial rather than 
mechanical. All material was arranged in a coher- 
ent scheme or system, and it was this system, 
rather than the material, that was remembered. 

A series of cancellation and reaction-time tests 
showed that the simple sensory reactions were 
slower and more regular than those of the aver- 
age person, but the motor reactions were much 
quicker. This accords with previous indications 
as to Poincare's general motor type. The most 
significant thing about the reactions is said to be 
the wandering and unstable attention which they 
disclosed. It was difficult to keep Poincare's mind 
on the tests, because his attention constantly wan- 
dered to the apparatus. In receiving instructions 
for such experiments he did not seem to compre- 
hend what was being said, but appeared distracted 
and uninterested. This is the same impression 
he is said to have given to those whom he met in 
his daily relations. He was restless, could not 
remain in one position or stay by one task, had 
no patience and abandoned his work whenever 
it seemed to require any voluntary effort. Tests 
of reverie associations and of free paired asso- 
ciates showed absence of voluntary attention and 



86 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

predominance of purely verbal association tend- 
encies. Binet's "cigarette description" test was 
used, and Poincare was found to belong to Binet's 
first type of observer (simple description, with no 
evidence of reflection or judgment, no display of 
erudition, no expression of fancy or sentiment). 
His description was remarkably lucid and clear. 
Poincare spoke correctly, never learned his ad- 
dresses by heart, and made few corrections either 
in writing or in speaking. Indications of his tem- 
perament and type are said to be suggested by 
his handwriting. 

Poincare 's opinions on various topics are given, 
and several peculiar habits of daily life are re- 
corded, chiefly for the sake of emphasizing his 
constant air of distraction, his impatience and 
restlessness. He loved music; sketched a little; 
did not sleep soundly; and often began to work on 
a problem only to abandon it in the faith that it 
would in some way solve itself unconsciously or 
that the right idea would come spontaneously on 
some later occasion. He often began a memoir 
without having any conclusion in mind. He often 
wrote formulae automatically for the sake of the 
chance associations which they might bring. 

These tests of Poincare showed him to present a 
striking contrast to Zola, the novelist. Zola's type 



^ 



THE PSYCHOGRAPHIC METHODS 87 

was found to be characterized by prominent vol- 
untary intellectual activity, clearly conscious and 
intense, concentrated effort, with no tendency to 
perseveration of ideas after cessation of work. 
His thought, as disclosed by the tests, was logical, 
methodical, and seemed preeminently fitted for 
the work of mathematical deduction. His method 
of work was quite the opposite of that of Poin- 
care, who, when he met with a difficulty or with a 
point requiring voluntary effort, abandoned his 
work or proceeded to another part of it which 
would develop more spontaneously. The surpris- 
ing thing was that a methodical, logical and 
persistent worker, such as Zola, should have be- 
come the prince of romance that he was. One 
might have expected that the mental processes of 
Poincare, which were shown to be flighty, uncon- 
trolled, spontaneous, unstable and spasmodic, 
would have particularly fitted him for the activ- 
ity of the romancer. Instead, they found their 
outlet in severe mathematical and philosophical 
creation. Poincare 's genius is thus said to be in- 
capable of explanation on the basis of his sensori- 
motor equipment, his imagination and memory, 
and the speed or control of his psychic activity. 
If his case is taken as typical, it suggests the quite 
unexpected result that tendency to distraction, 



88 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

automatisms, oscillating attention, restlessness, 
uncontrolled association and reliance on chance 
syntheses and spontaneous ideas are significant 
for the type of genius required in mathematics 
and philosophical speculation. Certainly in Poin- 
care's case they seem to have constituted a defi- 
nite method of research. 

The chief value of this examination of Poincare 
does not lie in the particular results which it 
yielded, but in its initiation of such attempts to 
study in a more or less intimate and intensive way 
the psychological processes and type of individ- 
uals of marked achievement in special lines of 
work. For the purposes of vocational psychology 
it would be valuable to know the ways in which 
such admittedly superior individuals as those now 
being studied by Dr. Toulouse, differing as they 
do in their types of achievement, would react to 
the simple and complex tests now employed by 
those interested in the measurement of intelli- 
gence and special aptitudes. It is true that these 
psychographic methods do not yet yield results 
which are sufficient to inform us why the particu- 
lar individuals examined were so much more suc- 
cessful in their work than were others who seem 
to have been equally favored and equally diligent. 
Nor have they yet revealed in any adequate way 



THE PSYCHOGRAPHIC METHODS 89 

tlie nature or degree of the qualifications requisite 
for success in the vocations from which the repre- 
sentative men have been selected. Nevertheless 
the individual psychograph constitutes a sug- 
gestive method of research for the vocational psy- 
chology of the future. It represents the intensive 
development of the older type of "biography," 
based on direct observational data rather than on 
hearsay, conjecture and anecdote. 

It is on some variation of this method that we 
must largely rely in our efforts to learn to what 
degree vocational success depends on the presence 
of demonstrable personal characteristics, rather 
than on the accidents of time, place and circum- 
stance. It was inevitable that the first attempts 
to give psychographic accounts of the personality 
of individuals of genius should be more or less 
fragmentary, incomplete and experimental. This 
has been due partly to the rapidity with which our 
knowledge of mental tests has developed, and 
partly to the very complex and subtle types of 
achievement toward which these early psycho- 
graphic methods have been directed. Various in- 
vestigations are now under way in which these 
same methods are being used in the intensive ex- 
amination of individuals who have engaged in sim- 
pler and more common forms of activity, with 



90 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

varying degrees of success. In some of these re- 
searches, for example, men who have made their 
life work the marketing of a specific type of com- 
modity through direct and personal salesmanship 
are being submitted to intensive psychological 
examinations. The problem is to discover 
whether there is a more or less specific and rec- 
ognizable type of personality which characterizes 
the successful salesman and differentiates him 
from the mediocre salesman and the utter failure. 
Directed toward these more familiar and more 
easily accessible occupations, the individual psy- 
chograph constitutes one of the most interesting 
forms of vocational psychology. Closely related 
to it, though sufficiently distinct in aim and method 
to merit separate presentation, is the method of 
the vocational psychograph, in which the work, 
rather than the worker, is made the object of 
analysis. 

THE VOCATIONAL PSYCHOGRAPH 

Closely related to the method of intensive ex- 
amination described in the preceding section, and 
profitable in a somewhat different direction, is 
^ the type of psychograph represented in Professor 
Seashore's reports on **The Measurement of a 



THE PSYCHOGRAPHIC METHODS 91 

Singer. ' ' This may be called the ' ' vocational psy- 
chograph" as contrasted with the psychograph of 
the individual of genius. It proceeds by discover- 
ing first the necessary abilities and capacities 
which a given sort of performance demands. In 
the case of singing, rather more than in almost any 
other vocation, certain definite and fairly identifi- 
able abilities are quite obviously required, and 
the degree to which they must be present for defi- 
nite attainments is rather more easily discover- 
able. 

Thus, Seashore writes: "Musical power is gen- 
erally admitted to embrace certain well-recognized 
and fairly concrete capacities. In our common- 
place judgments about ourselves and others we 
say : ' 1 have no ear for music. ' ' I cannot tell a 
chord from a discord.' *I cannot keep time.' 'I 
have no sense of rhythm.' 'I cannot tell a two- 
step from a waltz,' 'I cannot remember music' 
'I cannot image sounds.' 'I am not moved by 
music' 'I do not enjoy music' Or, if speaking 
of someone who has musical ability, we say: ^He 
has a deep, rich voice. ' ' He never forgets an air. ' 
'He lives in song.' Such judgments have refer- 
ence to generally admitted specific factors in- 
volved in musical capacity by virtue of a musical 
organization. Corresponding to these judgments 



92 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

of native capacity we have judgments about mu- 
sical education, about musical environment, about 
special influences and stimuli for the development 
of musical talent, and about technique and success 
in the rendition of music. When judgments of 
this kind are based upon measurements, classified 
and adequately interpreted, they may constitute 
a measure of the individual as a singer. 

*'The measure of a singer should consist of a 
relatively small number of representative meas- 
urements upon specific capacities and achieve- 
ments. These measurements must be set in a full 
survey by systematic observation and other veri- 
fied information bearing upon the variation of the 
individual as a singer. The classification of the 
measurements must be based upon (1) the attri- 
butes of sound which constitute the objective as- 
pect of music, and (2) upon fundamental and es- 
sential processes in the singer's appreciation and 
expression of music. From the point of view of 
the objective sound, we must take into account 
pitch (with its complexes of timbre and harmony), 
intensity, and duration. From the point of view 
of mental processes we may group the tests under 
the heads, sensory, motor, associational, and af- 
fective, each of these furnishing natural subdi- 
visions." 



THE PSYCHOGRAPHIC METHODS 95 

The writer then presents an arrangement of 
these proposed measurements in a program, 
which is also recommended as the outline for a 
systematic description of the individual in his 
capacity as a singer. The sensory group of tests 
includes five tests under pitch, two under in- 
tensity, and one under time discrimination. The 
motor group includes seven tests under pitch, two 
under intensity, and four under time. The asso- 
ciational group includes two tests under imagery, 
three under memory, and four under ideation. 
The affective group contains three tests under 
musical appeal, and one each under reaction to 
musical effect and power of interpretation in sing- 
ing. A copy of this program of tests is given in 
the Appendix. 

In a chapter of his '^Psychology in Daily 
Life," ^ Seashore describes these special tests. He 
indicates their significance and suggests approxi- 
mate norms for those cases for which they are at 
present available. For the accumulation of many 
of these norms, and for the conduct of the tests, 
special and elaborate apparatus and methods are 
required. For several years the workers in Sea- 
shore's laboratory have busied themselves with 
the problems concerned in the measurement and 

^ "Conduct of Mind Series," D. Appleton & Co., New York. 



94 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

accumulation of norms for pitch discrimination, 
vividness of tone imagery, span of tone memory, 
consonance and dissonance, rhythmic action, in- 
tensity discrimination, voluntary control of the 
pitch of the voice, and the singing of intervals. 

Eef erence to norms thus acquired shows, for ex- 
ample, that in the case of discrimination in volun- 
tary control of the pitch of the voice ' ' a record of 
.9 vd. means that this ability is within three per 
cent of the best record for individuals under sim- 
ilar conditions, and that those who have such con- 
trol are thoroughly qualified to render a high class 
of music in this respect; while a record of 9 vd. 
falls within eight per cent of the poorest ability 
measured, and is characteristic of an individual 
who cannot sing; whereas 3 vd. represents the 
average ability of an untrained individual. ' ' 

Again, in another connection, and with refer- 
ence this time to the discrimination of tones when 
heard, the same investigator has suggested that 
one who can discriminate a difference, from a 
given standard pitch, of 3 vd. or less may become 
a musician; one whose threshold falls between 3 
and 8 vd. ''should have a plain musical educa- 
tion"; one whose discrimination is so poor that 
9 to 17 vd. is the measure "should have a plain 
musical education only if special inclination for 



THE PSYCHOGRAPHIC METHODS 95 

some kind of nmsic is shown" ; while a measure of 
18 vd. or above indicates that the individual 
"should have nothing to do with music." These 
suggestions were proposed for individuals of 
equal age, advancement and general ability. 

That is to say, there are but three persons in a 
hundred who, having just sung the tone which is 
produced by a tuning fork vibrating two hundred 
and fifty-six times per second, can then voluntarily 
and accurately change the pitch of the voice to 
represent the tone of a fork vibrating 256.9 times 
per second, a change of .9 of a vibration. But fifty 
persons of the hundred can produce voluntarily a 
change of three vibrations, and ninety-two of the 
hundred can produce the very large change of 
nine vibrations. Seashore, of course, points out 
that in addition to these various measurements, 
*' there must be other measurements, statistical 
data, biographical information, and free observa- 
tions concerning musical training, traits Of tem- 
perament and attitude, spontaneous tendencies in 
the pursuit of music, general education and non- 
musical accomplishments, social circumstances 
and physique," and that all these in their unity 
must be considered in the light of expert knowl- 
edge and expert technical insight before they can 
be said to give an adequate estimate of the par- 



96 iVOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

ticnlar individual's varions capacities and qualifi- 
cations as a singer. Those interested in the use 
of psychological tests in connection with musical 
ability should familiarize themselves with the 
many original reports from Seashore's labora- 
tory. The methods there being followed may well 
serve as models for future analyses of vocational 
demands and individual tests. 

If the highly specialized work of singing calls 
for such complex analysis and for such varied 
measurements, technical skill, and arduous collec- 
tion of norms and standards, one realizes the utter 
folly of such vocational counsel as that which 
vaguely recommends the candidate to "be a mu- 
sician," ''be a writer," etc. Indeed, we may now 
begin to see that it is only when each particular 
aspect of each particular calling is thoroughly 
analyzed into its elementary requirements, when 
reliable tests for the detection and measurement 
of these abilities are available, and adequate 
norms and standards accumulated in each case, 
only then can the method of the vocational psy- 
chograph come to have practical application in 
vocational analysis and guidance. 

How far, we may now ask, has such analysis 
been able, as a matter of fact, to proceed with the 
representative types of work? So far as recorded 



THE PSYCHOGRAPHIC METHODS 97 

enterprise is concerned there have been three dif- 
ferent ways of attempting such analyses. One 
of these methods is that used by the various voca- 
tional bureaus iii endeavoring to learn what type 
of individual is most in demand in the different 
occupations. Futile as these endeavors have been, 
it is nevertheless well to have them before us for 
our future reference and guidance. In the main 
the questionnaire method has been used in this 
connection ; employers have been asked to state, in 
much their own way, the necessary or desirable 
mental and moral qualifications of those who 
might expect to succeed in the various kinds of 
work. 

These replies have been collated and attempts 
made to secure "clinical pictures" of the type of 
individuals. These methods result in such char- 
acterizations as the following. The words speci- 
fying the vocation itself are omitted, and the 
reader is invited to guess which of the large num- 
ber of possible callings is being described. 

"The girl who enters should be able to 

use good language, and should dress neatly and 
appropriately in order to impress people agree- 
ably. She should be able to write a legible hand, 
make clear figures, and spell correctly; a practical 
knowledge of arithmetic, especially fractions, is 



98 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

very important. Prime requisites for success are 
interest and enthusiasm and a knowledge of hu- 
man nature. The born takes a vital inter- 
est in her , in her , and in her . 

She studies her , learns something of their 

, knows what their good points are, and is 

able to about them intelligently and truth- 
fully. She is a good judge of people, and she has 
the sincerity and the tact which enable her to help 

a so to as to go away satisfied and 

come to her again. Such a is alert, ener- 
getic, and gives strongly the impression that she 
is in her place to and therefore never dis- 
plays an indifferent manner toward anyone who 
may ask her service. Loyal to her work, she is 
always courteous, for loss of temper means loss 
of ." 

Now, if one but insert suitable words where the 
omissions occur, the paragraph remains equally 
applicable and illuminating when applied to any 
of the following occupations, diverse as they seem 
to be: housekeeper, waitress, stenographer, milli- 
ner, teacher, mother, doctor, nurse, cashier, sales- 
woman, insurance agent, bookkeeper, clinical psy- 
chologist, private secretary. The following para- 
graph is equally illuminating : 

**If a girl wishes to succeed in she must 



THE PSYCHOGRAPHIC METHODS 99 

be possessed with intelligence [How much?], good 
judgment and common sense. She must have good 
eyesight, good hearing and a good memory. She 
must have good perception and be able to concen- 
trate her attention completely on any matter in 
hand. In addition to these she must be neat in 

executing work and accurate to the last 

degree. It is absolutely necessary that she have 
a good education." 

It would require several trials to guess of what 
particular occupation this is a psychographic pic- 
ture. 

It is clear at once that this method yields little 
information of the kind we are here considering, 
beyond the cataloging of the general sterling vir- 
tues of mankind. The peculiar and distinctive 
mental functions presumably involved in the vari- 
ous types of work are just the ones that no one 
not an expert in psychological analysis could be 
expected adequately to portray. The so-called 
special qualifications, such as honesty, patience, 
attention, neatness, perseverance, etc., do not 
represent elementary psychological categories. 
Moreover, they are qualifications with which no 
legitimate sphere of human activity can afford to 
dispense. In the long run they are characteristics 
which correlate to a high degree or, indeed, per- 



100 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

haps help to make up and constitute what we call 
general intelligence. In no case is there any speci- 
iScation of the precise amount of these various 
traits that may be needed. Since the days of the 
faculty psychology we have ceased to think of at- 
tention, memory, will, etc., as homogeneous pow- 
ers which play in a general sort of way on all sorts 
of material. We usually find that when an indi- 
vidual is inattentive to one set of facts this is 
largely due to his being attentively preoccupied 
with some other set. Still' further, no tests have 
been proposed which satisfactorily measure such 
traits as honesty, perseverance, promptness. Nor 
is it certainly known to what degree such traits are 
fixed characteristics of individuals and to what 
degree they represent present habits and tend- 
encies modifiable in many ways if the circum- 
stances call for such change. 

Turning from the employer himself, and his de- 
scription of the ideal worker, we may inquire what 
happens when the professional psychologist un- 
dertakes this analysis? The only case in which 
an expert psychologist has attempted this is to be 
found in Mlinsterberg's recent book on "Vocation 
and Learning." It is there pointed out that every 
act and experience has its threefold aspect, the 
aspect of knowing, that of feeling, and that of 



THE PSYCHOGRAPHIC METHODS 101 

doing. Corresponding to these three aspects, 
there are to be pointed out in the case of each 
occupation the required information, the neces- 
sary technical skill, and the special guiding per- 
sonal interests and social satisfactions. In order 
to clarify our knowledge of the special needs of 
the various vocations, and presumably to aid in 
the guidance of individuals in their vocational 
choices, eleven different representative vocations 
are analyzed on this threefold basis. Two or three 
of the analyses may be given here as an indica- 
tion of the results arrived at by this method at the 
hands of the avowed applied psychologist. The 
specification of the particular technical knowledge 
we need not include for our purpose, since this 
consists of information supplied through some 
form of education. The outline on the following 
page brings together the requisite abilities and the 
implied motives and interests, as stated for the oc- 
cupations of domestic worker, architect, physician, 
and journalist. 

It is obvious that such analysis is inadequate 
for our purpose. For the most part the various 
vocations are said to be actuated by much the same 
motives, the leading satisfactions being honor, 
truth, position, beauty, progress, fees or salary, 
and welfare. These enumerations, of course, help 



102 



VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 



Occupation 


Domestic Worker 


Architect 


Physician 


Journalist 




Joyful work 


Esthetic sense 


Social dealing 


Sociability 




Energy- 


Imagination 


Energy 


Energy 




Patience 


Industry 


Discretion 


Memory 




Teaching 


Drawing 


Tact 


Accuracy 


Abilitiea 


Economy 


Modeling 


Judgment 


Judgment 


Required 


Physique 


Specification 
Employment 
of men 




Observation 




Housekeeping 


Architecture 


Dissection 


Typewriting 




Sewing 


Engineering 


Microscopical 


Quick Expres- 




Cooking 


Heating 


Observation 


sion 




Nursing 


Ventilating 


Psychotherapy 


Forceful style 




House fur- 


Construction 


Clinical Ac- 






nishing 




tivity 
Surgical Tech- 
nique 






Morality 


Honor 


Honor 


Honor 




Beauty 


Beauty 


Truth 


Truth 




Position 


Position 


Position 


Influence 


Implied Per- 


Support 


Fees 


Fees 


Salary ■, 


sonal Motives 


Home Life 


Comfort 


Influence 


Progress 


and Social 


Family Wel- 


Progress 






Interests 


fare 










Comfort of 


Housing 


Welfare of 


Politics 




Community 




Community 


Education 




Family Com- 




Health 


Information 




fort 




Prevention of 
Disease 


Entertainment 



US in no way to distinguish between the particular 
satisfactions or interests involved in the different 
types of work. Quite the same thing is true of 
the abilities required. Most of them call for en- 
ergy, industry, judgment and ability to deal with 
people. The same might be said of prize-fighting, 
plumbing and peddling. And do not the journal- 
ist and the housekeeper require tact as well as the 
physician? Is it true that the architect alone, of 
the four examples here given, has use for imagina- 
tion and an esthetic sense, that the domestic 



THE PSYCHOGRAPHIC METHODS 103 

alone needs physical development and joyfulness? 
Accuracy is perhaps more necessary to success in 
architecture than to the pursuit of journalism, 
while judgment, discretion and observation would 
seem to be of occasional value even to the house- 
keeper and the architect. 

In short, this type of analysis, which, whether 
accepted seriously or not, represents the latest 
word from a distinguished psychologist on the dif- 
ferences among the occupations, gives us no more 
assistance toward the basis of a vocational psy- 
chograph than did the catalogs of sterling vir- 
tues provided by the employers in their replies to 
the questionnaires. 

Various other types of analysis have been pro- 
posed, as well as different criteria, on the basis 
of which the occupations might be thrown under 
some form of psychological classification. Thus 
it has been pointed out that the traditional dis- 
tinctions on the basis of materials handled or type 
of product produced, give little indication of the 
type of activity involved or of the characteristics 
necessary for success. As Schneider has re- 
marked: ''If a boy were successful in wood-shop 
work, he was told he would make a good carpen- 
ter ; however, wood-turning in a shop and outdoor 
carpentry are dissimilar types, while wood-turn- 



104 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

ing in a shop and metal-turning in a shop are 
similar types." 

Schneider has for many years considered the 
problems involved in adjusting human beings to 
congenial types of work, and prefers to classify 
both men and jobs on the basis of certain broad 
characteristics which refer more particularly to 
interests, habits, preferences and similar tempera- 
mental factors than to the technical psychological 
mechanisms employed in the work. He writes: 
** Every individual has certain broad character- 
istics and every type of work requires certain 
broad characteristics. The problem, then, is to 
state the broad characteristics, to devise a ra- 
tional method to discover these characteristics 
(or talents) in individuals, to classify the types of 
jobs by the talents they require and to guide the 
youth with certain talents into the type of job 
which requires those talents. This is a big prob- 
lem, but one possible of measurable solution, or, at 
worst, possible of a solution immeasurably su- 
perior to our present haphazard methods. 

As an illustration of what Schneider means by 
"broad characteristics," take his distinction be- 
tween the "settled" and the "roving" types. 
"There is a type of man who wants to get on the 
same car every morning, get off at the same cor- 



THE PSYCHOGRAPHIC METHODS 105 

ner, go to the same shop, ring up at the same 
clock, stow his lunch in the same locker, go to the 
same machine and do the same class of work, day 
after day. Another type of man would go crazy 
under this routine ; he wants to move about, meet 
new people, see and do new things. The first is 
settled; the second is roving. The first might 
make a good man for a shop manufacturing a 
standard product ; the second might make a good 
railroad man or a good outdoor carpenter." 

Or, again, consider his distinction on the basis 
of ''scope." ''Then there are two types — one 
of which likes to fuss with an intricate bit of 
mechanism, while the other wants the task of big 
dimensions — the watchmaker, the engraver, the 
inlayer, the painter of miniatures, on the one 
hand; the bridge builder, the steel-mill worker, 
the train dispatcher, the circus man on the other. 
One has small scope, the other large scope." 

Basing his analyses mainly on the enterprises 
of manufacture, construction and transportation, 
and recognizing that other broad characteristics 
would probably be listed if different types of oc- 
cupation were also considered, Schneider gives a 
list of sixteen classifications which may be ap- 
plied either to the individual or to the type of 
work. These are as follows: 



106 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

a — ^Physical strength ; physical weakness. 

b — Mental; manual. 

c — Settled; roving. 

d — Indoor; outdoor. 

e — Directive ; dependent. 

f — Original (creative) ; imitative. 

g — Small scope; large scope. 

h — Adaptable ; self -centered. 

i — Deliberate ; impulsive. 

j — Music sense. 

k — Color sense. 

1 — Manual accuracy; manual inaccuracy, 
m — Mental accuracy (logic) ; mental inaccuracy. 

n — Concentration (mental focus) ; diffusion. 
o — Eapid mental coordination ; slow mental co- 
ordination. 

p — Dynamic; static. 

It must be said that the characteristics of the 
various types of work here enumerated are pretty 
much the features which have in the past guided 
such individuals as really chose their vocation 
rather than found it waiting for them, made a 
random selection, or seized the first available op- 
portunity. The paired adjectives probably afford 
truer descriptions of various types of work than 
they do of types of individuals. Most individuals 
of one's acquaintance one would have to group 
neither under the one nor the other extreme, but 
in an average group which would show each of the 
opposed tendencies under special circumstances or 
would show no particularly marked degree of 



THE PSYCHOGRAPHIC METHODS 107 

either tendency. Observation of such individuals 
for long periods of time and under a variety of 
circumstances would be required before these 
classifications could be made out by a stranger or 
by a professional counsellor. Even then such a 
classification could hardly be said to be psycholog- 
ical in any technical sense of the word, and it is 
not very probable that psychological training or 
experience would facilitate or render more relia- 
ble such classification. The question of to what 
degree the individual's judgment of his own char- 
acteristics may be relied on in such an analysis we 
must defer until a later section where that is taken 
up as the main subject of discussion. 

The reliable vocational psychograph, which pro- 
ceeds by means of a careful preliminary analysis 
of the qualities required in the given work, and 
uses specially adapted tests with reliable norms 
for their evaluation, is not yet available for any 
single occupation. The preliminary analyses so 
far made, whether by employer, psychologist, or 
engineer, give us little guidance, and until such 
guidance is forthcoming the special adaptation of 
tests and the accumulation of norms and stand- 
ards cannot make much practical progress. The 
inadequacy of the analyses already offered should 
not discourage further effort in this direction. 



108 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

The alignment of the Simple industrial processes 
along the general intelligence scale has already 
been begun. The description of the more complex 
tasks in terms of identifiable mental characteris- 
tics is a much more difficult task, but this very dif- 
ficulty is at once a sign of the importance of the 
problem. 



CHAPTER V 

SPECIALIZED VOCATIONAL TESTS AND METHODS 

The absence of complete vocational psyclio- 
graphs has not retarded the search for tests which, 
though more or less fragmentary, may have voca- 
tional significance. In fact, there are some twenty 
types of work for which tests have already been 
proposed, recommended, and more or less tenta- 
tively tried out. A brief account of these, with 
references to the more complete literature, will be 
given here, and some attempt made to evaluate 
the tests themselves. 

Substitutes for the vocational psychograph, in 
the way of partial and suggestive tests, have been 
proposed in four different forms. Since the work 
of the immediate future will probably develop 
along these same lines, these four forms wiU be 
indicated here, and typical illustrations cited in 
each case. 

A. There is first what may be called the method 
of the vocational miniature. Here the entire work, 
or some selected and important part of it, is re- 
produced on a small scale by using toy apparatus 

109 



110 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

or in .some such way duplicating the actual situa- 
tion which the worker faces when engaged at his 
task. Thus McComas, in testing telephone oper- 
ators, constructed a miniature switchboard and 
put the operators through actual calls and re- 
sponses, meanwhile measuring their speed and ac- 
curacy by means of chronometric attachments. 
Stern and others recommend tests of the fidelity 
of report of a witness in court by letting him ob- 
serve some rehearsed scene, some motion picture 
representation of a series of events, or some pic- 
torial portrayal of a scene or episode, and exam- 
ining into the faithfulness with which he can de- 
scribe what he there saw. 

B. Closely related to this method of miniature 
performance is that of taking an actual piece of 
the work to be performed and sampling the candi- 
date's ability by his success in this trial. Thus, in 
connection with the recommendation of clerks and 
assistants from among the boys in commercial 
high schools it is common to test their ability from 
time to time throughout their course by assigning 
them small pieces of work similar to that which 
they might later be required to perform in busi- 
ness offices and shops. Finding addresses and 
numbers in a telephone directory, carrying out 
involved verbal instructions and directions from 



SPECIALIZED TESTS AND METHODS 111 

memory, computing calculations, recommending 
action on the basis of their figures, making out a 
trial balance, a trial chemical analysis, etc., are 
common forms of this type of test. In certain 
cases such specimens of work have been devised 
in or taken into the psychological laboratory and 
the worker watched more closely and measured 
more exactly. This has been done, for instance, by 
Thorndike in the case of clerical workers and 
salesmen, by Paynter in the case of judges of 
trade-mark infringements, by Scott in the case of 
salesmen, and by others in the case of tests fol' 
handwriting experts. 

C. A third method has been that of analogy. 
Some test is devised which bears real or supposed 
resemblance to the sort of situation met by the 
worker in the given occupational activity. The 
material is new, but the attitude and endeavor of 
the worker seem to be much the same. There is 
indeed usually a tacit or expressed belief that the 
same simple or complex mental processes or psy- 
chological functions are involved in the two cases, 
although the precise nature of this function has 
seldom been clearly stated. Thus girls employed 
in sorting steel ball-bearings, and also typesetters, 
have been selected on the basis of their speed of 
reaction to a sound stimulus. Munsterberg has 



112 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

suggested that marine officers who can quickly 
perceive a situation and choose an appropriate 
mode of reaction to it may be selected by letting 
candidates sort into their appropriate piles a deck 
of cards bearing different combinations of let- 
ters. The same investigator has described a test 
for motormen which, while being neither a minia- 
ture of their required work nor yet a sample of 
it, is said to produce in them much the same men- 
tal attitude. In another case telephone operators 
were tested for speed in canceling certain letters 
from a newspaper page, in the belief that this 
work involved an ability that was also required at 
the switchboard, although there directed to differ- 
ent material. McComas has described a dot-strik- 
ing test for measuring accuracy of aim or motor 
coordination, which forms an essential factor in 
manipulating a switchboard. 

D. Finally there are cases in which tests hav- 
ing vocational significance have been sought by 
purely haphazard and empirical ways. Thus 
Lough, having devised a form of substitution test 
in which certain characters had always to be re- 
placed by certain others, according to a prescribed 
key, then proceeded to apply it to groups of com- 
mercial students. Speed of improvement was 
chosen as the thing of interest in respect to the 



SPECIALIZED TESTS AND METHODS 113 

test. Measures of this capacity, as shown by re- 
peated trials with the same test day after day, 
were then compared with measures of ability in 
different types of work in which the students were 
engaged. It was found that the test records 
agreed very closely with the abilities in typewrit- 
ing, fairly closely with abilities in business cor- 
respondence and stenography, whereas there was 
not such definite relation found between the test 
records and ability in learning the German lan- 
guage or in mathematics. The test is conse- 
quently recommended as a useful means of de- 
tecting typewriting and stenographic ability. It 
is not pretended that the test is a miniature 
of the work of such calling, nor that it is a fair 
sample of such work, nor even that it involves 
precisely the same mental functions that come into 
play in such work. The test records and ability 
in the particular type of work show high positive 
correlation, which means that an individual who 
is good or medium or poor in the one is, as a mere 
matter of fact, also found to be good, medium or 
poor in the other. Hence, without further analy- 
sis, the one may be used as the sign of the other. 

Another good illustration of the use of this 
method is the study of Lahy, who put good, aver- 
age and poor typewriters through a great num- 



114 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

ber of tests of different sorts. He found that tlie 
only tests correlating closely with ability in the 
practical work were those for memory span, tac- 
tile and muscular sensibility, sustained attention, 
and equality of strength in the two hands. 

Perhaps the most perfect example of this purely 
empirical procedure is the investigation which 
has now been conducted for several years by Mrs. 
Woolley and her co-workers in Cincinnati. Chil- 
dren who leave the grades to enter directly into 
some sort of industrial occupation are examined 
by a miscellaneous assortment of simple mental 
tests. These records are preserved, and the sub- 
sequent successes or failures of the pupils in the 
various sorts of work undertaken by them in later 
life are as carefully recorded as is possible. It is 
hoped that when a sufficient amount of material 
of this nature has been accumulated the two sets 
of data may be compared and information thereby 
secured concerning the relation between ability 
in the tests and the types and degrees of indus- 
trial fitness. At present only the test records have 
been published. 

In a recent investigation an attempt was made 
to discover, by this empirical method, a set of 
mental tests which would aid in the selection of 
efficient workers in a specific field. Thirty work- 



SPECIALIZED TESTS AND METHODS 115 

ers who were already employed under fairly com- 
parable conditions of work were taken as subjects 
in a preliminary search for tests of value. These 
thirty people were each put through a series of 
^'association tests," of the familiar laboratory 
form, naming opposites, naming colors and forms, 
completing mutilated passages, following hard 
directions, giving responses bearing specified re- 
lations to stimulus words, cancellation and num- 
ber checking, etc. While these tests were in prog- 
ress, during a period of several days, the thirty 
workers were rated by three supervisors^ who 
were familiar with their work at the actual task, 
and who had for some time been observing their 
performance with a view to making subsequent 
judgments. Each supervisor arranged the thirty 
workers in an order of merit, according to his or 
her impression of their relative efficiency. The 
judgments of these three supervisors were then 
averaged and each worker assigned a final posi- 
tion on the basis of these averages. This was be- 
lieved to be as accurate a measure of actual ability 
as could be secured under the complex conditions 
of work. 

The results of these ratings were then com- 
pared with the results of the mental tests. Some 
of the tests were found not to correlate with the 



116 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

ratings for actual working efficiency. Three tests 
showed definite and positive correlations, as fol- 
lows: Color-Naming (thirty-seven per cent), 
Hard Directions (forty per cent), Completion 
(thirty-three per cent). When results from these 
three tests were combined, the records correlated 
with the ratings by a coefficient of fifty-five per 
cent. These three tests were then accepted as 
having value in the selection of good operators, 
and search was continued for further tests which 
might also yield positive correlations. This in- 
vestigation is again an illustration of the purely 
empirical method. 

These four procedures in the search for useful 
vocational tests, in the absence of complete voca- 
tional psychographs, are quite generally recog- 
nized to be but tentative expedients of an explora- 
tive character. Lidividual workers have not al- 
ways clearly recognized the principles involved in 
their work, but have proceeded as best they could 
under the special circumstances. Each method 
has its own defects and advantages. The minia- 
ture model has the advantage of concreteness and 
apparent relevance, but, as Miinsterberg points 
out, ''a reduced copy of an external apparatus 
may arouse ideas, feelings and volitions which 
have little in common with the processes of ac- 



SPECIALIZED TESTS AND METHODS 117 

tual life." This writer is inclined to believe, on 
the basis of his experiments so far, that ** experi- 
ments with small models of the actual industrial 
mechanism are hardly appropriate for investiga- 
tions in the field of economic psychology. The es- 
sential point for the psychological experiment is 
not the external similarity of the apparatus, but 
exclusively the inner similarity of the mental atti- 
tude. The more the external mechanism with 
which or on which the action is carried out be- 
comes schematized, the more the action itself will 
appear in its true character." 

The second method we have described, viz., that 
of using as the test a real sample of the work 
done, has certain very obvious advantages. On 
the other hand, for the vocational test of this type 
to be at all significant, either the sort of work in- 
volved in the occupation must be fairly uniform 
and homogeneous in all its different circumstances 
(as in the case of typewriting at dictation, or in 
the work of filing clerks, accountants, etc.), or else 
there must be included a large number of samples 
representing all the various unrelated sorts of 
work. Moreover, in neither case is the test in any 
peculiar sense psychological. Such tests could 
perhaps be best conducted by the employer him- 
self. In fact, employment on trial, which is a com- 



118 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

mon method of selecting operatives and assist- 
ants, is a time-honored form of this test, which 
is not necessarily improved either by calling it 
psychological or by putting it in charge of a 
general expert or by removing it to the labora- 
tory. 

The third form of procedure is full of all sorts 
of difficulties and sources of error, many of which 
are, at the present stage of our knowledge, ir- 
remediable. In selecting a new test which will 
involve the same mental attitude and call for the 
exercise of the same psychological functions as 
are needed in the work itself, we are handicapped 
by the unreliability of the introspection of the ex- 
aminee and also by our inadequate ability to rec- 
ognize, identify and classify psychological func- 
tions even when we are confident that these are 
present. The statement of motormen that the 
manipulation of a crank in connection with a strip 
of checkered paper makes them feel quite as they 
do when guiding their cars through a crowded 
thoroughfare is far from a guaranty ''that the 
mental function which they were going through 
had the greatest possible similarity with their ex- 
perience on the front platform of the electric 
car." It is much more conceivable that the "men- 
tal attitude" referred to was merely the vague 



SPECIALIZED TESTS AND METHODS 119 

feeling that ''Something is happening now," 
''This keeps me busy," or "What a nuisance this 
thing is." And even if we knew the mental func- 
tions involved, as would be demanded by the vo- 
cational psychograph method, we are still a long 
way from the time when we can exhibit even a 
single psychological test and state just what func- 
tion or functions its performance does or does not, 
may or may not, involve. Indeed we do not even 
know what the various distinct mental functions 
are, or whether, as a matter of fact, there are such 
distinct functions. 

After all, the miscellaneous, random, and purely 
empirical method of Lough, Lahy and Woolley 
seems to be the most promising experimental pro- 
cedure for the immediate present, and perhaps 
for some time to come. This method is, to be 
sure, but a rough, provisional and unanalyzed 
expedient. It calls for long and patient coopera- 
tive labor. It does not at once afford us the sys- 
tematic scientific insight which we may wish we 
possessed. But it will at least save us from the 
delusion that we already possess such insight, and 
it should serve to check the fervent and semi-re- 
ligious zeal that leads us to mistake prophecy for 
service. Analysis and classification of the results 
which this method yields are possible when the 



120 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

results are accumulated in adequate measure. 
It is essential that interest in this eminently 
practical use of the psychological laboratory be 
sustained among those who are responsible for the 
further promotion of its methods and problems. 
But it is undesirable that public expectation 
should be strenuously directed toward the labora- 
tory until it has done more than the outlining of 
a series of problems and the initiation of prelimi- 
nary efforts toward their solution. These special- 
ized vocational methods, the miniature, the sam- 
pling, the analogy, and the empirical procedure, 
constitute four definite and promising instruments 
of research. They have yielded results of such 
demonstrable practical value, in the selection of 
special types of workers and in the detection of 
particular aptitudes and abilities, that the appli- 
cation of selected mental tests has already come 
to play an important role in the placement and 
training departments of a considerable number of 
industrial and commercial concerns. While the 
more slowly developing individual and vocational 
psychographs are being perfected, these special- 
ized vocational tests will not only serve the pur- 
poses of temporary assistance and expedience, but 
the results derived from their intelligent use and 
their further patient elaboration will contribute 



SPECIALIZED TESTS AND METHODS 1^1 

materially toward the establislinient of more com- 
plete and systematic technique.^ 

^ In the Appendix is given a list of references to books and 
articles which describe numerous tests worth trying out by 
the empirical method. Instructions should be carefully fol- 
lowed so that results may be comparable with those secured 
by other workers. 



CHAPTER VI 

SELF-ANALYSIS AND THE JUDGMENT OF ASSOCIATES 
THE SELF-ANALYSIS OF THE INDIVIDUAL 

We have now reviewed the vocational efforts 
of primitive magic, medieval clairvoyance, phre- 
nology, physiognomies, industrial education, the 
vocational survey, the individual psychograph of 
genius, the vocational psychograph, the graded 
scales of intelligence tests, and the four proposed 
types of specialized vocational tests. 

We have yet to consider three further methods 
available for the purposes of vocational psy- 
chology, that of "self-analysis," and that of the 
"consensus of opinion" of one's associates, and 
that of inferring the characteristics of the indi- 
vidual from his achievement in the work of the 
school curriculum. In the absence of more reli- 
able ways of determining the capacities, interests 
and vocational aptitudes of individuals in the 
past, and whenever there was any question of se- 
lection, fitness, or choice, four vague methods have 
often been followed. (1) Either the individual 
undertook the first available type of employment, 

122 



SELF-ANALYSIS AND JUDGMENT 123 

tried it out, and then persevered in it or aban- 
doned it for a trial at some other type of work 
until a suitable occupation was found; or (2) he 
continued at the original work and made the most 
of the results and of the ensuing satisfactions or 
dissatisfactions ; or (3) he felt more or less clearly 
drawn to some particular occupation because of a 
keen interest in it or because he believed himself 
to be particularly likely to succeed in it because 
of his own analysis of his aptitudes and charac- 
teristics ; or (4) he consulted friends and associ- 
ates, asking them to advise him on the basis of 
their impression of his individuality and powers. 
The unsatisfactoriness, waste and misery of the 
first two of these methods are largely responsible 
for the development of a conscious attempt at the 
vocational guidance of youth. Perhaps if more 
use were made of the two remaining methods we 
should never have been moved to initiate the la- 
borious work called for by the psychographic and 
the test methods. Not enough critical attention 
has been given to the methods of self -analysis and 
to the validity of the judgments passed on us by 
our associates. The difficulty encountered when 
one seeks for information on such questions as the 
following indicates the desirability of further and 
closer study of these matters. 



124 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

1. In the individual's analysis of Lis own per- 
sonality, are formal guidance and method needed, 
is special terminology useful, and the recorded ex- 
perience of others an aid? 

2. If so, what sort of guide or scheme or system 
may such self-analysis profitably follow? 

3. Have such guides to the introspective analy- 
sis of the self been formulated, and by whom, 
where, and when 1 

4. How reliable and consistent are an individu- 
al's judgments of his own characteristics, inter- 
ests, and aptitudes! Has one any constant tend- 
ency to overestimate or underestimate himself? 

5. Do the degree of reliability and consistency, 
and this constant error vary in any way with the 
individual, with the circumstances, and with the 
particular trait that is being estimated? 

6. How is the individual's judgment of himself 
likely to compare with the impression of him 
which his associates form? To what degree does 
this vary with the individual, the trait, and the 
associates ? 

7. What relation exists between the individual's 
opinion of himself and the results of objective 
measurements of him, such as those afforded by 
psychological tests? How do the results of tests 
compare with the judgments of associates? 



SELF-ANALYSIS AND JUDGMENT 126 

8. Are individuals wlio themselves possess a 
given trait in high degree better judges of that 
trait in themselves or in others than are those who 
possess the trait in less degree? 

9. What intercorrelations exist between the es- 
timates of self and others, when different traits 
are compared? 

10. In the case of people in school, what rela- 
tions exist between the self -estimate, the estimate 
of others, and the results of tests, on the one hand, 
and school standing, academic success, and extra- 
academic activities 1 What relation between these 
factors and successfulness in later life? 

On the first three of these questions I shall indi- 
cate in following sections such material as is avail- 
able, pointing out where the more valuable and 
detailed information may be found. On the re- 
maining seven questions recorded information is 
much rarer. Here I shall summarize the available 
material and shall also present tentative answers 
based on an original investigation which was con- 
ducted for the express purpose of calling more 
definite attention to the problems, as well as to 
suggest fruitful methods, and at least make a 
beginning in the accumulation of facts concern- 
ing these very interesting features of human 
nature. 



126 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

There is perhaps no proof required that com- 
plete and systematic self-analysis is more desir- 
able than random and undirected introspections, 
whatever value may be attached to the results of 
such analysis. Whatever be the purpose of self 
analysis, it will be the more useful and sugges- 
tive the more completely it compasses the total 
range of capacities and inclinations. Compari- 
son of different analyses by different individuals 
should result in a synthesis of traits, an accept- 
able terminology and a mode of statement better 
calculated to throw light on individual equipment 
than is secured by the methods of casual and un- 
guided rumination. So far as possible such an- 
alyses should proceed in terms of identifiable, 
comparable and measurable characteristics rather 
than by the vague categories of conversation and 
literary description. Such categories, traits and 
terminology should be used as will best enable the 
individual not only to state his own reactions in 
figures of speech, but also to compare himself with 
his immediate associates and with characters less 
directly known. 

One of the first attempts to draw up a list of 
fundamental qualities as an aid in the inventory 
of a given individual's particular nature was 
made by Professor Cattell in an article concern- 



SELF-ANALYSIS AND JUDGMENT 127 

ing the characteristics of men of science. Twen- 
ty-four traits are enumerated, as follows : 

Physical Health Reasonableness 

Mental Balance Clearness 

Intellect Independence 

Emotions Cooperativeness 

Will Unselfishness 

Quickness Kindliness 

Intensity Cheerfulness 

Breadth Eefinement 

Energy Integrity 

Judgment Courage 

Originality Efficiency 

Perseverance Leadership 

Of this list Thorndike has written: *' These ele- 
ments of manhood or components in mental 
structure hail from a mixture of psychological 
theory and general reflection on human behavior. 
It is regrettable that the list has not been pub- 
lished more widely and used in a variety of con- 
nections. It seems probable that these signifi- 
cant nouns may in many cases be paralleled by 
natural units of mental organization-atoms in the 
human compound. I venture to suggest also, as 
at least a provisional principle of organization, 
the instincts or original tendencies of man as a 
species, it being my opinion that some of the 
terms of the above list refer to rather complex 
concatenations of traits in man's nature which 



1128 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

have only the artificial unity of producing some 
defined result in human life." 

Partridge, in his "Outline of Individual 
Study," gives an account of methods whereby the 
teacher may assist the young child in discovering 
his or her particular physical and mental consti- 
tution. The book contains a brief outline for such 
study and enumerates many pages of words de- 
scriptive of human nature. The main aspects of 
the mental life of children are taken up in suc- 
cessive chapters and discussed in a general way, 
with suggestions in the way of tests, problems, 
questions, points of observation, etc. 

The '^Family History Book" (Bulletin No. 7) 
of the Eugenics Eecord Office contains a scheme, 
arranged by Drs. Hoch and Amsden, for the exam- 
ination of the personality of persons suspected of 
mental abnormality. This scheme is further elab- 
orated by Wells in an outline to be referred to at 
a later point in this chapter. In the ' ' Trait Book" 
(Bulletin No. 6) of this same office there is to be 
found a long list of traits descriptive of human 
beings, including physical and physiological as 
well as nervous and mental characteristics. These 
traits are classified for convenient reference and 
record according to a decimal key. The pamphlet 
also contains classified lists of diseases, crimes, 



SELF-ANALYSIS AND JUDGMENT 129 

and occupations. Various other bulletins issued 
by the Eugenics Record Office will also be found 
both interesting and suggestive to those inter- 
ested in the study of self-analysis, heredity and 
individual differences. They contain nothing, 
however, of immediate vocational applicability. 

Dr. F. L. Wells has made a comparative study 
and synthesis of the schemes proposed by Cattell, 
Hoch and Amsden, Heymans and Wiersma, and 
Davenport, supplementing these at certain points 
and suggesting a method of giving more or less 
quantitative form to the characterizations. It is 
obvious that an outHne of this sort can be used 
in expressing the personality of another individ- 
ual as well as for the purposes of self-analysis. 
Such an outline is of value not only for general 
knowledge or for vocational study but also in the 
examination into questions of mental health, 
pathological tendencies and trends, predisposi- 
tions leading to or favoring mental instability, 
etc. Wells describes fourteen phases or aspects 
of human personality, and under each phase pre- 
sents guiding questions, suggestive clues, and sub- 
features. Especially convenient and helpful is 
the method of giving an approximate quantitative 
statement which facilitates comparison and sum- 
mation. Suitable marks assigned to the several 



130 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

different cliaracteristics under each of the four- 
teen main headings (there are in all about ninety- 
five subtraits) serve to indicate marked, distinct 
or doubtful presence, or marked, distinct or 
doubtful deficiency or aversion. 

The main headings given by Wells are as fol- 
lows: 

1. Intellectual Processes (5 subtopics) 

2. Output of Energy (4 subtopics) 

3. Self Assertion (7 subtopics) 

4. Adaptability (5 subtopics) 

5. General Habits of Work (5 subtopics)^ 

6. Moral Sphere (6 subtopics) 

7. Eecreative Activities (16 subtopics) 

8. General Cast of Mood (3 subtopics) 

9. Attitude Toward Self (4 subtopics) 

10. Attitude Toward Others (7 subtopics) 

11. Eeactions to Attitude Toward Self and Oth- 

ers (12 subtopics) 

12. Position Towards Eeality (5 subtopics) 

13. Sexual Sphere (9 subtopics) 

14. Balancing Factors (6 subtopics) 

The complete outline, accompanied by much 
suggestive discussion and comment on the con- 
stitution, development and types of human per- 
sonality, is published in the issue of the Psycho- 



SELF-ANALYSIS AND JUDGMENT 131 

logical Review for July, 1914. It should be care- 
fully read by all interested in this type of indi- 
vidual analysis. 

One of the most carefully planned, easily avail- 
able and concretely serviceable outlines for self- 
analysis is that recently formulated and published 
by Yerkes and LaRue under the title "Outline 
of a Study of the Self" (Harvard University 
Press, 1914). The authors of this outline have 
found that a study of ancestry, development and 
present constitution is an extremely profitable 
task. They present this guide as an aid to such 
systematic and thorough study. The purpose of 
such study is threefold: (1) to help the individ- 
ual understand himself or herself; (2) to help the 
individual understand and sympathize with oth- 
ers; (3) to arouse interest in the study of he- 
redity, environmental influences, eugenics and 
euthenics. 

The *' Outline" is put together on the looseleaf 
system, with blank pages for records and replies. 
Under the heading "Ancestral History of the 
Self" are given the "Record of Family Traits" 
of the Eugenics Record Office, and many supple- 
mentary questions concerning physical, mental, 
moral and social traits of near relatives, with sug- 
gestions as to their classification and evaluation. 



132 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

Under ''Development or Growth of the Self" and 
''The Self of Today" the prenatal, infantile, child- 
hood and adolescent periods and the present time 
are each provided with questions concerning char- 
acteristics, influences, growth, temperament, in- 
clinations, habits, capacities and social relations. 
Under ' ' The Significance of the Characteristics of 
the Self" are given questions concerning voca- 
tional demands, equipment, and ambitions; mari- 
tal propensities and fitness; responsibilities and 
preparation for parenthood; and the "Index to 
the Germ Plasm" of the Eugenics Eecord Office is 
considered. A final section invites reflection on 
"The Duties of the Self as a Member of Social 
Groups" in the light of physical and mental con- 
stitution, moral and religious tendencies, voca- 
tional abilities, and marital and parental relations 
and duties. 

Such attempts to present suggestive outlines 
for self-analysis or for the inventory of the traits 
of others are both commendable and timely. That 
they are but beginnings in the right direction 
their authors commonly recognize. Their sup- 
porting idea is not that employers, teachers or 
physicians should take the individual's replies to 
these questions as embodying information which 
the individual did not previously know about him- 



SELF-ANALYSIS AND JUDGMENT 133 

self. The individual, in attempting to express 
and analyze Ms inclinations and reactions, may 
find them clarified and ordered in the process. 
He is likely to discover at a very early point in 
his record how little he is really able to say about 
himself with assurance. If this should induce a 
humility which would lead him to more careful 
self-scrutiny, such value as this subjective stock- 
taking may have will surely tend to be enhanced. 



THE JUDGMENT OF ASSOCIATES 

No less important than the correct evaluation 
of the individual's self -analysis is the problem of 
evaluating the judgments which his acquaintances 
pass on his mental constitution and qualifications. 
Not only does the youth often determine his choice 
of a vocation by relying on the advice of his as- 
sociates, teachers, and friends, but his success in 
securing an opportunity to undertake any kind 
of work whatsoever often depends on the oral 
or written estimate of some other person of whom 
inquiry is made. Selection on the basis of the 
testimonial and the recommendation has come to 
be a traditional vocational step. 

' ' The problem of judgment of character is one 
which is continually confronting people of all 



,134j VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

classes and stations. In many instances the cor- 
rect estimate of a person's cliaracter is of vital 
importance. The success of officers of adminis- 
tration from the President of the United States 
to the school superintendent of a small village 
depends often on their ability to choose for their 
subordinates persons of the proper character. In 
everyday life one's happy choice of friends, one's 
ability to sell goods, to persuade people to accept 
a new point of view or doctrine, to get on har- 
moniously with people in general in all the vari- 
ous occupations of life, depend upon one's ability 
to estimate the powers, capacities, and character- 
istics of people. To those who have to make per- 
sonal recommendations or to make use of those 
made by others, this question of judgment of 
character is a grave one. Is it possible for one 
to judge at all fairly the character of another ? " ^ 
We are concerned here not with inference from 
physiognomic features and anthropometric meas- 
urements, but with impressions based on the ob- 
served conduct, expression and achievement of 
the individual who is in question, his or her char- 
acteristic behavior, attitudes, activities, reactions, 
and accomplishments. When the individual being 

^Norsworthy, "The Validity of Judgments of Cliaracter," 
in "Essays in Honor of William James," p. 553. 



SELF-ANALYSIS AND JUDGMENT 135 

judged is a total stranger and tlie judgment is 
immediate, estimates of character are of course 
merely of the type discussed in preceding sec- 
tions on phrenology and physiognomy. 

Professor Cattell once requested twelve ac- 
quaintances of five scientific men to grade these 
five men in the various traits of character to 
which we have referred on page 127. The grades 
assigned were to represent the position of the 
individual in his group. Thus a grade of twenty- 
five per cent would mean that the individual be- 
longed in the lowest one-quarter of the total 
group of scientific men in the country, in the trait 
so marked, three-fourths of the group being su- 
perior to him in this trait. A grade of one hun- 
dred per cent would mean that the individual so 
graded would belong among the highest one per 
cent of all the scientific men in the country, in the 
trait so marked. When these records were com- 
piled it was seen that in the case of certain traits, 
such as energy, perseverance, efficiency, the 
twelve judges differed much less among them- 
selves than when judging other traits, such as 
cheerfulness, kindliness, unselfishness. It is inter- 
esting to note that the traits on which the judges 
agreed closely represent the individual's reac- 
tions to objective things, whereas the traits on 



136 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

which they disagreed most represent the individu- 
al 's reactions toward other people. 

There are, of course, several reasons for this 
result. In the first place the reactions of an 
individual to objects, as displayed in his daily 
work, are matters of common knowledge and are 
likely to leave objective and even measurable evi- 
dence such as wealth, books, buildings, etc. Ee- 
actions to other individuals are more likely to 
vary with the occasion and with the companion, 
and are also likely to be deliberately controlled, 
inhibited or assumed, in the interest of more ob- 
jective and remote ends. This would mean that 
whereas in the first case all the judges were deal- 
ing with much the same material, in the form of 
actual products of the traits in question, in the 
second case they were more or less likely to have 
in mind rather diiferent reactions or occasions of 
a more strictly personal character. 

The problem of the validity of judgments of the 
various traits was considered in a more detailed 
way by Norsworthy, from whose account of her 
inquiry we have already quoted. She chose the 
traits enumerated by Cattell, and performed sev- 
eral experiments to determine the reliability of 
judgments of this sort. Thus she had five inti- 
mate acquaintances independently grade a sixth 



SELF-ANALYSIS AND JUDGMENT 137 

person for her possession of these twenty-four 
traits, on two different occasions several weeks 
apart. 

Two things were clearly shown. In the first 
place the individual judges, in their second trials, 
did not diverge far from their first ratings. In 
the second place the double judgments of the five 
different judges did not diverge far from each 
other. These two facts ''prove that the ratings 
do stand for some actual quantitative value and 
are not subject to mere chance. The validity of 
the judgments, in the sense of their correspond- 
ence with the actual character of X is then only 
a matter of the impartiality of the group of 
judges. ' ' 

Similar results were found in the judgments of 
nine members of a college society by five of their 
comrades, and in the judgments of a teacher by 
two hundred college students. It was apparent 
also that judges differ from one another in the 
general accuracy of their gradings. Some of 
them agree closely with the consensus of opinion, 
while others depart, in varying degrees, from 
the average or correct estimate. It was also seen 
that, in estimating certain individuals, judges with 
presumably equal acquaintance with those being 
judged agreed closely with one another. Other 



138 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

persons had produced quite different impressions 
on the different judges and this was revealed in 
the greater divergence of the grades assigned to 
such persons. 

As in the case of Cattell's results, figures are 
presented showing the degree of divergence 
among the judges in estimating the different 
traits. In the table on page 139 these figures are 
given, as shown in the records of five judges in 
one of Norsworthy's experiments, and the rec- 
ords of the twelve judges in Cattell's investiga- 
tion. The average variability or degree of di- 
vergence for all the twenty-four traits is taken as 
the standard and each trait compared with this 
standard. A variability of one hundred thus in- 
dicates the average amount of disagreement. 
Figures smaller than one hundred indicate that 
the agreement was closer than average, and fig- 
ures larger than one hundred indicate that here 
the judges disagreed by more than the average 
amount. 

Naturally, there is not perfect agreement in 
these two cases, since the one set of data is from 
a group of girls judging one another on the basis 
of their acquaintance as social comrades and fel- 
low students, while the other set is from scientific 
men judging one another on the basis of less con- 



SELF-ANALYSIS AND JUDGMENT 139 



TABLE 1 

Vaeiabilitt in Judging Different Traits 





Relative Divergence of Different Judges 


Trait 


CatteU, 
12 Judges 


Norsworthy, 
5 Judges 


Average of Both 
Experiments 


Efficiency 


75.0 
95.2 
90.0 
95.2 

75.0 
100.0 

85.1 
100.0 

90.0 

104.9 
110.2 

85.1 
115.0 
104.9 

90.0 
115.0 
120.0 

75.0 
100.0 

115.0 
104.9 
125.0 
130.0 
120.0 


92.4 

77.2 
88.0 
92.0 

101.0 

78.7 

98.1 

92.4 

102.9 

75.7 
81.8 

113.7 
86.4 
98.5 

116.5 
92.4 
91.0 

109.0 

119.5 

106.0 
130.1 
113.5 
112.0 

125.7 


83.7 (Close 


Originality 


86.2 Agree- 
89.0 ment) 


Quickness 


Intellect 


93.6 


Perseverance 


88.1 


Judgment 


89.4 (Fair 


Will 


91.8 Agree- 
96.2 ment) 


Breadth 


Leadership 


96.5 


Clearness 


90.3 


Mental Balance 

Intensity 


96.0 

99.4 


Reasonableness 

Independence 

Refinement 


100.7 (SUght 
101.7 Agree- 
103.5 ment) 
103.7 
105.5 


Physical Health 

Emotions 


Energy 


91.0 


Courage 


109.8 


Unselfishness 


110.5 


Integrity 


117.5 (Little 
119.3 Agree- 
121.0 ment) 
122.9 


Cooperativeness 

Cheerfulness 

Kindliness 







stant association and largely on acquaintance in 
lecturing, research, teaching and the writing of 
articles and books. Moreover, results from 
groups of only five judges in the one case and only 



140 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

twelve in the other are subject to considerable 
variable error. In spite of these facts, interesting 
suggestions are afforded by the comparison. 

It is to be noted that certain traits show small 
divergence in both cases. Thus intellect, quick- 
ness, originality and efficiency have low meas- 
ures of variability, both for the sorority members 
and for the men of science. The average percent- 
ages of these four traits are, in the order named, 
93.6, 89.0, 86.2, and 83.7. These, it is to be ob- 
served, are the traits which are likely to yield 
objective products. The more personal, social 
and moral traits, however, such as cooperative- 
ness, unselfishness, kindliness, cheerfulness, and 
integrity, show large divergence of the individual 
judgment with both groups. The average meas- 
ures of variability for these traits, in the order 
named, are 119.3, 110.5, 122.9, 121.0, and 117.5. 
There is another group of traits which, while 
showing only about average variability with one 
group, show close agreement in the other: such 
as will, judgment, perseverance, leadership and 
breadth. These, it is clear, are more nearly like 
the objective than they are like the personal traits. 
Then there are several traits which, while show- 
ing only average variability with one group, show 
large divergences in the other, such as courage 



SELF-ANALYSIS AND JUDGMENT 141 

and independence. These would seem to be more 
nearly like the more strictly personal traits. 

Norsworthy points out that the traits about 
which inquiries are commonly made in recom- 
mendation blanks sent out by teachers' agencies, 
employment bureaus, and employers, tend to be 
those on which, according to her results, individ- 
ual opinion is least reliable. Traits such as orig- 
inality, judgment, clearness and quickness, on 
which judgments are most unanimous and consist- 
ent, are usually omitted from these blanks. This 
indicates the desirability of a more careful exami- 
nation into the general validity of this type of 
judgment. 

Here, then, as in all the other topics that we 
have had occasion to discuss, we find that our 
present knowledge is far from adequate to meet 
the demands of practical life. Available results 
are tentative only, but they are so suggestive as 
to afford a series of interesting problems for fur- 
ther investigation. The validity of judgments of 
associates varies with the judge, with the trait in 
question, and with the person who is being esti- 
mated. But it does not vary at random ; it varies 
in what seem to be fairly definite, common, and 
determinable ways. That we do not know more 
about the precise nature of these variations means 



142 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

merely tliat few persons have taken the trouble 
to inquire into the matter. 

The use of oral and written recommendations, 
testimonials, ''characters," and letters of intro- 
duction should be based on a careful study of 
these materials. Especially should we know more 
than we now do concerning the reliability of judg- 
ment in the case of the different traits, the likeli- 
hood that the verdict of a single judge will agree 
with the consensus of opinion, the relation of 
these judgments to the individual's self -estimate, 
and the accordance of both these with the results 
of objective performance. In the following chap- 
ter some of these questions will be further con- 
sidered. 



CHAPTER Vn 

EXPEKIMENTAL STUDY OF SELF-ANALYSIS, ESTIMATES 
OF ASSOCIATES AND THE EESULTS OF TESTS 

As we have already remarked, it would be of 
scientific interest and of practical value in voca- 
tional psychology if we knew sometliing more or 
less precise concerning the reliability of the in- 
dividual's self -analysis. It would be of equal in- 
terest and value to know in what ways the results 
of such introspection compare with the judgments 
of friends and the results of actual measurement. 
By way of initiating investigations of these and 
related questions the following experiments have 
been carried out. The results to be reported are 
so suggestive as to make very desirable a continu- 
ation and extension of researches of this kind. 

From a list of about one hundred and fifty stu- 
dents in their third college year each member of 
the group was asked to indicate by marking, as 
3, 2, 1, or 0, the degree of her acquaintance with 
each of the others. From the total list a group 
of twenty-five were selected, all of whom were ac- 
quainted with one another. At intervals varying 

143 



I 



144 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

from two weeks to a month each individual was 
given twenty-five slips of paper bearing the 
names of these acquaintances and including the 
individual's own name. She was asked to arrange 
the members of the group in order of merit, on 
each occasion, according to their degree of pos- 
session of some one trait, such as neatness, hu- 
mor, intelligence, conceit, etc. Thus in the case of 
neatness, for example, the twenty-five persons 
were to be placed in a series with the neatest at 
one end, the most slovenly at the other end, and 
all the others arranged in their appropriate inter- 
mediate positions, as based on the judge's per- 
sonal opinion of them. The judge was to include 
her own name in the series, placing herself where 
she believed herself to belong in relation to her 
twenty-four acquaintances. The record was then 
handed in, in an apparently anonymous way, but, 
unknown to the individuals, accurate record was 
kept, identifying each arrangement. This was 
done in order that the judges might be encour- 
aged to the greatest degree of frankness both in 
judging their acquaintances and in recording 
their self-estimates. The different arrangements 
were separated by considerable intervals of time, 
so that the judgments of the various traits should 
be influenced as little as possible by the memory 



EXPERIMENTS, ESTIMATES, RESULTS 145 

of where the different individuals in the list had 
been placed for other traits on previous occa- 
sions. 

In addition to this part of the experiment, each 
person was put through a series of seven psycho- 
logical tests, all of which had been rather gener- 
ally found to give results which revealed, to a very 
high degree of correctness, the general intelli- 
gence of people when this was determined in 
other ways, as by mental age, school grade, aca- 
demic marks, opinions of teachers, judgments of 
friends, etc. The particular tests used were the 
Graded Completion Test, described in a previous 
section, and six so-called Association Tests, rec- 
ommended by the Committee on Standardization 
of Tests of the American Psychological Associa- 
tion. They are usually known as Directions Test, 
Opposites Test, Supraordinate Concept Test, 
Whole-Part Test, Action- Agent Test, and Mixed 
Relations Test. Copies of the forms used in these 
tests are given in the Appendix. 

All of these tests involve the demand for the 
quick and accurate perception of and reaction to 
the relations of things or ideas to each other. 
Everything indicates that this ability is most im- 
portant and determining in the composition of 
that characteristic which we vaguely call '^gen- 



'146 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

era! intelligence,'^ especially if we are dealing 
with people with school experience. 

Furthermore, the academic marks of scholar- 
ship assigned to these twenty-five students by 
their instructors in diffent college branches dur- 
ing three terms of college work were secured from 
the official records. Judgments of the degree to 
which the different students had been prominent 
in extra-academic activities during their college 
career were made by officers of the college who 
had known them during this time. Photographs 
of the twenty-five persons, of the same general 
style and size, were secured also, as well as char- 
acteristic specimens of their handwriting. 

This experiment having been completed, a 
sin 'lar investigation was undertaken with twen- 
ty-five members of the senior class. The same 
method of procedure was followed as in the first 
case, the same traits judged, the same tests ad- 
ministered, etc. This second investigation thus 
affords a check on the results of the first study. 
When the results from the two investigations are 
averaged we have figures of considerable relia- 
bility, and fairly accurate data on numerous in- 
teresting questions. 

Probably never before have such diverse ways 
been employed in attempting to get intensive 



EXPERIMENTS, ESTIMATES, RESULTS 147 

measurements of the individuality. The material 
enables us to throw preliminary and suggestive 
light on many of the questions we have already 
raised. It should of course be fully recognized 
that the results of this little investigation cannot 
be generalized into final conclusions which will 
be true in other cases, without further verification 
of them. The results show only what happened 
in this case, and only to that degree do they sug- 
gest what we may expect to be generally true. 
Many similar studies must be made, under all 
sorts of conditions and by a variety of methods, 
before we shall have the final answers to our ques- 
tions. But the results are no less valuable be- 
cause of their lack of finality. Tentative as they 
may be, they nevertheless show what happened 
in the only recorded attempt to find answers to 
the questions we have been considering. If the 
reader will now turn back to page 124 he will note 
how numerous, important, and complex these 
questions are, and how tittle is at present known 
about them. 

Turning now to our experiment, it will be ob- 
served that only in the case of intelligence do we 
have what purport to be objective measures of a 
trait, viz., the results of the psychological tests 
and the academic records. But we have, in the 



148 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

average of the judgments of the twenty-five indi- 
viduals, in the case of this and also of the vari- 
ous other traits, what constitutes as valid a meas- 
urement as it is possible to secure under the cir- 
cumstances. Neatness, conceit, humor, beauty, 
etc., are not to be conceived as substances of 
which the different individuals possess different 
amounts. These traits are mainly ways of be- 
having or ways of impressing our neighbors. No 
better measure of them exists than the actual 
statement of what this impression is. Just as the 
value of a commodity depends entirely on what, 
as a matter of fact, people can be persuaded to 
pay for it, so the beauty, conceit, neatness, etc., of 
an individual are mainly constituted by the kind 
of impression the individual makes on those about 
him. At least we may be sure that only to the de- 
gree that such traits actually manifest themselves 
and thus determine the reactions of others toward 
the individual concerned, only to that degree do 
the traits have vocational significance. Lovable- 
ness is just the degree to which people actually 
have affection for us ; eminence is just the degree 
to which the individual becomes approvingly 
known ; and kindliness and benevolence are pres- 
ent to just the degree that people are actually 
gratified and comforted by our conduct. 



EXPERIMENTS, ESTIMATES, RESULTS 149 

Let us turn at once to the actual results of our 
experiments. It will perhaps be best to ask spe- 
cific questions about them and in the case of each 
question present the data and draw such conclu- 
sions as the figures warrant. In the figures which 
follow I have averaged together the results from 
the two investigations, so that our conclusions or 
suggestions may have the highest possible valid- 
ity. In some other connection it would be inter- 
esting to compare the two sets of data, and to at- 
tempt to explain certain differences which are to 
be found between them. But in the present in- 
stance it is our chief concern to exhibit the method 
of procedure and to indicate the type of informa- 
tion which may be secured from such investiga- 
tions. Many more such studies must be made be- 
fore the results can be said to apply to human 
nature at large, or before the tendencies discov- 
ered can legitimately be expected to be present in 
the case of any particular individual. 

7. How do the self-estimates of these fifty per- 
sons agree with the judgments passed on them hy 
their acquaintances? The following table gives, 
in the case of each of the nine traits studied, the 
average deviation of the self -estimates of the va- 
rious individuals from the median position as- 
signed them by their twenty-four associates, and 



150 



VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 



also the average deviation ^ among these twenty- 
four associates in their judgments of each indi- 
vidual. The figure given is in terms of the num- 
ber of positions in the total scale of twenty-five 
possible positions. Thus, in the case of neatness, 



TABLE 2 

Errob op Self-Estimates Compared with 
OF 24 Associates 


Error of 


Judgments 




A. D. of Assoc. 


A.E.ofSelf-Est. 


Neatness 


4.5 
3.7 
4.5 
4.1 
3.8 
3.5 
4.8 
5.9 
4.7 




5.8 


Intelligence 


6.0 


Humor 


7.3 


Conceit 


5.7 


Beauty 


6.0 


Vulgarity 


6.1 


Snobbishness 


5.1 


Refinement 


7.2 


Sociability 


5.4 







the figures meaii that, whereas each individual, in 
the long run, displaces herself by 5.8 positions 
from her true or median position, the twenty-four 
associates deviate on the average by only 4.5 
places in their judgments of another person. 
That is to say, the individual's error in judging 
herself is somewhat greater than the average er- 
ror of her friends in their judgments of her. The 

^ See footnote on p. 42 for an explanation of the computa- 
tion and meaning of such measures of deviation or error. 



EXPERIMENTS, ESTIMATES, RESULTS 151 

individual does not judge herself as accurately 
as she is judged by her friends. 

In all cases the individual places herself farther 
from her true position than do her friends on 
the average. The average of all the deviations of 
associates is 4.4 places ; that of all the individual 
self-estimates is 6.1 places. That is to say, in 
general the error of self-estimation tends to be 
half again as great as the average error of the 
judgments of associates. In other words, these 
students do not judge themselves as accurately as 
their friends judge them, if the average position 
assigned the individual by the group of twenty- 
four associates may be taken as a fair measure of 
the individual's true status in the group. 

II. Is there any constant tendency toward over- 
estimation or underestimation, in the case of the 
individual's self -estimates, and if so, how does 
this tendency vary with the trait in question? It 
may be said in answer to this question, first, that 
in the case of none of the traits do all the indi- 
viduals consistently either overrate or under- 
rate themselves. But if the self -displacements be 
averaged algebraically, certain very definite tend- 
encies toward constant errors are revealed. The 
following table shows the constant error in the 
ease of each trait. In the case of ''undesirable" 



152 



VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 



traits (conceit, vulgarity and snobbislmess) this 
constant error is toward underestimation. On 
the average, these individuals rank themselves 
as less conceited, less vulgar and less snobbish 
than they really are, as judged by the combined 
opinion of their associates. In the case of all the 



TABLE 3 

Showing Constant Tendencies Toward Overestimation (+) 
AND Underestimation ( — ) op Self 



Trait 


Constant Error 


Number Over- 
estimating 
Themselves 


Number Under- 
estimating 
Themselves 


Refinement 

Humor 


+6.3 
+5.2 
+3.0 
+2.2 
+1.8 
+0.2 
—1.7 
—2.0 
—4.2 


40 
39 
34 
34 
25 
25 
24 
18 
17 


10 
11 


Intelligence 

Sociability 

Neatness 

Beauty 


16 
16 
25 
25 


Conceit 


26 


Snobbislmess 

Vulgarity 


32 
33 



remaining traits (the "desirable'^ ones) the gen- 
eral tendency is toward overestimation. The 
amount or degree of this overestimation varies 
considerably from trait to trait. It is greatest 
in the cases of refinement and humor, in which 
traits there are constant errors of +6.3 and +5.2 
places. In the cases of neatness, intelligence, 
and sociability the overestimation is only about 



EXPERIMENTS, ESTIMATES, RESULTS 159 

half as large as in these two traits, while in 
the case of beauty there is really no constant 
error. 

Another way of expressing these constant tend- 
encies is to give in each case the number of people 
in the group of fifty observers who tend in each 
direction. These figures are given in the last two 
colunms of the above table. It is clear at once 
that in the case of the first four traits the tend- 
ency is predominantly in the direction of over- 
estimation ; in the next three traits the two tend- 
encies are evenly balanced, while in the last two 
the general tendency is strongly toward under- 
estimation. 

It is of course difficult to say, in this connection, 
just how accurately the figures given portray the 
real self-estimation of the different individuals, 
and to what degree they indicate merely what the 
individual will do with her own name in the case 
of such an experiment. Natural modesty might 
easily lead one to place her own name lower in 
the scale for a given trait than she really believed 
herself to belong. If this were the case, we might 
then infer that the figures we have presented, al- 
though qualitatively suggestive, were not quanti- 
tatively reliable. They would, in other words, ex- 
press smaller degrees of overestimation and un- 



a54f VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

derestimation than were really present in the con- 
sciousness of our observers. Here, as in all the 
results of this investigation, the figures are given 
only as indicating what individuals actually do 
when asked to rank themselves among their as- 
sociates. Our conclusion on this point is that 
they tend to overestimate or to underestimate 
themselves, according to the ''desirableness" or 
''undesirableness" of the trait in question. In- 
dividual differences in these tendencies are every- 
where apparent. Thus, in neatness, individuals S 
and H stand about equally high (S being ninth 
and H being thirteenth), but S underestimates 
herseK by thirteen places, while H overestimates 
herself by ten places. 

In a third experiment of this same kind another 
group of twenty-five college seniors, in the same 
school and during the preceding year, had judged 
each other, including themselves, for the traits, 
efficiency, energy, kindliness and originality. 
The data from this experiment are not given here 
in full, since the method was precisely that of 
the two investigations we have just described, and 
since all of the results must be held as only sug- 
gestive of what may be expected to happen in the 
long run. These seniors also showed a general 
tendency to rate themselves somewhat higher 



EXPERIMENTS, ESTIMATES, RESULTS 155 

than they were rated by their associates. The 
amount of overestimation varied with the trait, 
all the traits in this case being of the "desirable" 
sort. Since the conditions of this third experi- 
ment were quite the same as those of the investi- 
gation just described in greater detail, except that 
a different group of individuals were concerned, 
it is perhaps fair to treat the results as compar- 
able, and to include the measures of constant er- 
ror along with the preceding records. The results 
from all the groups are included in the following 
table, which shows the constant tendency in the 
case of thirteen traits. 

[TABLE 4 
Constant Tendencies op Self-estimation in Thirteen Traits 



Trait 


Constant 
Error 


Trait 


Constant 
Error 


Refinement 


+6.3 
+5.2 
+4.0 
+3.8 
+3.0 
+2.2 
'+2.1 


Neatness 


+1.8 


Humor 


Originality 


+1 2 


Kindliness 


Beauty 


+0 2 


Enererv 


Conceit 


—1 7 


Intelligence 

Sociability 


Snobbishness 

Vulgarity 


—2.0 

— 4.2 


Efficiency 











Data from certain other investigations also tell 
us something about these tendencies in judging 
ourselves and others. Thus, in an investigation. 



156 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

by the writer/ a number of persons were set to 
work at the continuous performance of a series of 
mental and physical tests. After each trial the 
performer was required to judge whether he had 
done better or worse than usual on this occasion. 
In each case another person was required to 
watch the performer, and to judge, in the capacity 
of witness, whether the performance had been 
better or worse than usual for the individual who 
was doing the work. 

The data showed that although an observer is 
no more ''sensitive" to gain in efficiency than he 
is to loss, he is predisposed to judge both himself 
and another performer whom he is watching as 
having done "better than usual" rather than 
** worse than usual." The consequence is that 
smaller degrees of superiority tend to be judged 
as better with higher degrees of confidence, and 
that a certain slight degree of inferiority tends to 
be incorrectly judged as "better." We seem pre- 
disposed to judge "better" rather than "worse," 
and in this experiment the observers were, fur- 
thermore, predisposed in favor of the other per- 
son, somewhat more than in favor of themselves. 
They were disinclined to judge any trial as 

^ Experimental Studies in Judgment, Archives of Psychol- 
ogy, No. 29, 1913, 119 pp. 



EXPERIMENTS, ESTIMATES, RESULTS 157 

** worse than usual," and this disinclination was 
stronger when judging as witness than when 
judging as performer. This results in a combi- 
nation of altruism and optimism which, if found 
to be a common occurrence, would seem to have 
interesting implications. Further investigation 
will perhaps show that these attitudes are condi- 
tioned, under different circumstances, by a va- 
riety of factors, such as competition, education, 
motive, age or sex of performer and witness, and 
perhaps by individual differences of a tempera- 
mental sort. 

When Cattell had scientific men arrange their 
colleagues and themselves on the basis of scientific 
merit, he found no constant tendency either to 
overestimate or to underestimate oneself. He 
remarks, concerning this result: *'It thus ap- 
pears that there is no constant error in judging 
ourselves — we are about as likely to overestimate 
as to underestimate ourselves, and we can judge 
ourselves slightly more accurately than we are 
likely to be judged by one of our colleagues. We 
can only know ourselves from the reflected opin- 
ion of others, but it seems that we are able to esti- 
mate these more correctly than can those who 
are less interested. There are, however, wide in- 
dividual differences; several observers overesti- 



158 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

mate themselves decidedly, while others underesti- 
mate themselves to an equal degree." ^ 

Since these individual differences, in all the in- 
vestigations that have been reported, are so con- 
spicuous, we may next inquire whether the indi- 
vidual who possesses a given trait in high de- 
gree is a better or worse judge of that trait in 
himself and in others, than is a person in whom 
the trait itself is less marked. 

///. Is one who possesses a given trait in high 
degree a better or worse judge of that trait than 
is an individual in whom the trait is less conspicu- 
ous? On the basis of the combined judgments 
of the group we have secured a final position for 
each individual, which indicates her most proba- 
ble standing in the various traits. Since each in- 
dividual judged all the others of the group, we 
can, by correlating ^ the judgments of each indi- 
vidual with the combined judgments of the group, 
secure a coefficient of correlation which will indi- 
cate the ''judicial capacity" of the given indi- 
vidual. This figure will be a measure of the cor- 
rectness or representative character of her judg- 
ments of her friends. If the figure is low, it will 

^"American Men of Science." Second edition, p. 542. 
2 See p. 45 for explanation of the meaning and technique 
of correlation. 



EXPERIMENTS, ESTIMATES, RESULTS 159 

mean that lier own judgments do not agree closely 
with the combined or true judgments. If the fig- 
ure is high it will indicate that there is close cor- 
respondence, and that the individual's judgments 
of her friends agree closely with the combined 
judgment. Having secured these measures of ju- 
dicial capacity, and having also measures of the 
degree to which each individual possesses the 
various traits, we may by correlating these two 
measures determine whether or not any relation 
exists between possession of the trait and ability 
to judge others with respect to that trait. In the 
same way we may determine the relation between 
possession of the trait and ability to judge one- 
self in that trait. The table on page 160 gives 
these coefficients of correlation in the case of all 
the traits. 

In the cases of neatness, intelligence, humor, 
refinement and sociability the coefficients are all 
positive and fairly high. Thus in the case of hu- 
mor the coefficients of .59 and .87 indicate that 
that individual whom others consider humorous 
tends to be the most correct or representative of 
the group in her judgments of the humor of her- 
self and of others. The coefficients of .49 and .59 
in the case of intelligence indicate that that indi- 
vidual who impresses others as being intelligent 



160 



VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 



TABLE 5 

Showing the Relation Between Possession op a Trait and 

Ability to Judge Self and Others in that Trait 

(All coeflacients are positive unless otherwise indicated) 





Judg- 


Judg- 




Judg- 


Judg- 


Trait 


ment of 


ment of 


Trait 


ment of 


ment of 




Others 


Self 




Others 


Self 


Neatness 


.22 


.45 


Vulgarity 


— .24 


—.37 


Intelligence .... 


.49 


.59 


Snobbishness. . 


.33 


— .27 


Humor 


.59 


.87 


Conceit 


.19 


— .22 


Beauty 


.23 


.15 








Refinement. . . . 


.38 


.83 








Sociability 


.48 


.47 









is a good judge of intelligence both in herself and 
in others. The same is to be said of neatness, 
refinement and sociability. In the case of beauty 
the coefficients, although positive, are very low 
and hence not very reliable. They seem to indi- 
cate that in this case there is no relation of any 
sort between the possession of the trait and the 
ability to judge it. 

In the cases of the definitely ''undesirable*' 
traits, vulgarity, snobbishness and conceit, the co- 
efficients tend to be negative, and although none 
of them is very high, they suggest that the pos- 
session of these traits to a given degree tends to 
disqualify the individual to that degree as a judge 
of those traits, whether in herself or in others. 
These results also confirm the results in the case 



EXPERIMENTS, ESTIMATES, RESULTS 161 

of certain of the ** desirable" traits, since vul- 
garity and snobbishness, with low or negative co- 
efficients, are, grammatically at least, the opposites 
of refinement and sociability, which have high and 
positive coefficients. 

In general, then, our results suggest that, in the 
case of "desirable" traits, ability to judge a qual- 
ity accompanies possession of that quality, 
whereas in the case of the "undesirable" traits 
the reverse of this is the case. 

IV. What relation exists between these esti- 
mated traits and the more objective measure- 
ments of the individuals concerned? On the basis 
of the mental tests we have secured measures 
which may be compared with these estimated 
traits. The same comparison may be made in 
the case of the academic records received by 
the individuals in their college courses. The fol- 
lowing table shows the correlation of all the 
estimated traits with these two objective measure- 
ments. 

In the case of the mental tests all the coefficients 
are positive and fairly high in most cases. The 
correlation is highest of all with estimated intel- 
ligence, whatever that may mean. As we have 
used the term it perhaps 'means the impression 
of general capacity which an individual makes on 



162 



VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 



TABLE 6 

Showing the Relation between Estimated Traits and (a) the 

Results op Mental Tests; (b) the Academic Records op 

Each Individual In College Subjects 

(AU coefficients are positive unless otherwise indicated) 



Trait 


Correlation 

with Mental 

Tests 


Correlation 

with Academic 

Record 


Average 


Intelligence 

Humor 


.62 
.55 
.34 
.53 
.36 
.54 
.40 
.25 
.29 


.52 
.15 
.34 
.13 
.24 
.03 
.06 
— .07 
—.31 


.57 
.35 


Refinement 

Snobbishness 

Neatness 


.34 
.33 
.30 


Conceit 


.28 


Beauty 


.23 


Sociability 

Vulgarity 


.09 
—.01 







her associates. It is interesting to find that the 
mental tests, which can be administered in a few 
minutes, give us so close a measure of what this 
impression will be ; a measure, it should be noted, 
which is higher than that afforded by the aca- 
demic records, in spite of the fact that these aca- 
demic records had been from term to term an- 
nounced in a public way and might have been ex- 
pected to contribute toward the general impres- 
sion on the basis of which the judgments of in- 
telligence were passed. The high correlation be- 
tween tests and estimates suggests that the abili- 
ties displayed in these tests correspond very 



EXPERIMENTS, ESTIMATES, RESULTS 16^ 

closely to those characteristics on which our as- 
sociates base their estimates of our intelligence. 
This is an encouraging result for those interested 
in the vocational use of mental tests. 

But it is equally interesting that the results of 
the mental test correlate to so high a degree with 
the estimates of various other traits, notably hu- 
mor, snobbishness, conceit, beauty, neatness and 
refinement. This result suggests either or both 
of two interpretations. It may be, on the one 
hand, that these characteristics are only partial 
components of that more general trait, intelli- 
gence (with which the correlation of the tests is 
still higher), at least so far as the estimates of 
our associates are concerned. This would mean 
that a sense of humor, a tendency toward seK- 
esteem, physical attractiveness and a gentle man- 
ner dispose one's associates to think favorably 
of her general mental endowment. On the other 
hand the result may mean that an individual who 
has sufficient distinction to stand out prominently 
in any of the estimated traits here considered is 
possessed of a nervous system w^hich enables her 
to accomplish the work of these mental tests with 
corresponding efficiency. Such a characteristic as 
''general stand-out-ishness " may perhaps be a 
trait which calls for recognition, not only in daily 



164 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

life but also in the narrower categories of psyoHo- 
logical classification. 

In the case of the academic records this general 
tendency toward positive correlation is not pres- 
ent. The only high correlation is with estimated 
intelligence. It is impossible to say how far 
this high coefficient is due to general knowledge 
of academic attainments on the part of the indi- 
viduals composing the groups. Refinement and 
neatness are the only other traits which show any 
claim at all for correlation with academic records. 
The positive direction of these coefficients may 
afford some consolation to those who put their 
faith in the vocational significance of academic 
records of college students, but their low values 
constitute a somewhat less encouraging commen- 
tary. 

V. How do the various measures of intelligence 
compare with one another, and what is the relia- 
bility of these various measures? Frequent stud- 
ies have been made of the relation between 
teachers^ estimates of the general intelligence of 
pupils and their intelligence as shown by their 
performance in psychological tests. The teach- 
er's estimate is perhaps very likely to be based 
on that sort of intelligence which shows itself 
in academic performance only, since in many 



EXPERIMENTS, ESTIMATES, RESULTS 165 

cases the acquaintance is limited to contact in 
class room and laboratory. In our own case we 
have teachers' estimates only in the form of the 
actual class records. These are, then, not esti- 
mates of general intelligence in the strict sense, 
but are conditioned presumably for the most part 
by the student's performance in the class 
room. 

The academic marks were reported according to 
a letter system, in which A means ''very good," 
B means "good," C means ''fair," D means 
"poor" and F means "failed." Having secured 
these marks for all the students in English, Ger- 
man, Logic, Psj^chology, Economics and History, 
we averaged the marks for each student, by giv- 
ing A, B, C, D and F values of 90, 80, 70, 60 and 
50. This gave us final averages for all the stu- 
dents, on the basis of which averages they were 
arranged in order of merit, the two groups being 
separately treated. 

We have now the three following measures of 
intelligence : 

a. The results of the psychological tests. 

b. The opinion of fellow students. 

c. The academic records. 

The correlations between these various measures 
are given in the following tabulation: 



166 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY^ 

TABLE 7 

Showing the Coekblations between Vamoits Mbasubbb op 
Intelligence 





25 
Jxiniors 


25 

Seniors 


Correlation of psychological tests with esti- 
mated Intelligence 


.70 
.42 

.22 


.53 


Correlation of psychological tests with 
Academic Records 


.57 


Correlation of Academic Records with esti- 
mated InteUigence 


.37 







The most striking result here is tlie rather low 
correlation of the academic records with the other 
measures of intelligence. The psychological tests 
agree closely with the results of the estimates by 
associates. The correlation of the tests with the 
records is considerably lower, while the correla- 
tion of records with estimates is exceedingly low. 
The full significance of these results will of course 
depend on the attitude one takes toward the vari- 
ous measures. One who has faith in the value 
of academic records must of course reject the esti- 
mates of associates and be very sceptical of the 
value of the mental tests. But vocationally the 
estimates of associates must always have value, 
since these determine or indicate the reactions of 
others toward a given individual, and vocational 
success will depend to a considerable degree on 



EXPERIMENTS, ESTIMATES, RESULTS 167 

these reactions. The ultimate value of the mental 
tests is still to be determined ; in fact, it was partly 
in order to aid in their evaluation that these ex- 
periments were performed. Inasmuch as the 
tests and the estimates agree closely, the tests 
and the records less closely, while the records 
do not correlate to any marked degree with either 
of the two other measures, the significance of the 
academic marks, or their reliability in this in- 
stance, must be seriously called into question. 

VI. Does the ability to judge the traits of oth- 
ers {judicial capacity) stand in any relation to 
proficiency in mental tests or to success in college 
work? The following table shows the correla- 
tion of judicial capacity in the case of each trait 

TABLE 8 

Showing the Relation between Judiciaii Capacity and 
(a) Ability in Mental Tests; (b) Academic Records 



Trait 


Correlation of Judicial 

Capacity and Ability 

in Mental Tests 


Correlation of Judicial 

Capacity and Academic 

Records 


Neatness 


.05 
.55 
.48 
.20 
.15 
.18 
.20 
.15 
.26 


.09 


Intelligence 

Humor 


.26 
— 02 


Conceit 


09 


Beauty 


.14 


Vulgarity 

Snobbishness 

Refinement 

Sociability 


.14 

—.02 

.25 

.03 



168 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY; 

with standing in the tests and with academic 
records. 

In the case of academic records there is seen 
to be absolutely no correlation with judicial ca- 
pacity, in any of the traits estimated. In the case 
of the mental tests, only two of the traits yield 
high coefficients. In intelligence and in humor 
there is fairly high correlation (.55 and .48). The 
suggestion here is that those who do well in the 
mental tests are good judges of the intelligence 
and the humor of their friends, but that in the 
case of the other traits there is no necessary or 
probable relation. 

Question VII. Is the individual who is a good 
judge of others also one whose self -estimates have 
high reliability? If the individuals are placed in 
an order of merit with respect to their judicial 
capacity in estimating the characteristics of their 
friends, and placed also in another order of merit 
on the basis of the accuracy of their self-esti- 
mates, what relation will be found between the 
two arrangements? The following table gives 
the coefficients of correlation when such arrange- 
ments are compared in the case of each of the 
traits. 

All the coefficients are positive, their median 
value being .44. In the long run it is true that she 



EXPERIMENTS, ESTIMATES, RESULTS 169 

TABLE 9 

Showing the Relation between Ability to Judge Others 
AND Ability to Judge Oneself 



Trait 


Correlation between Judicial 

Capacity and Accuracy of the 

Individual's Self -Estimates 


Refinement 


.54 


Humor 


.53 


Beauty 


.47 


Sociability 


.46 


Intelligence 


.44 


Conceit 


.26 


Neatness 


.22 


Vulgarity 


.22 


Snobbishness 


.15 







who knows herself best is the best judge of oth- 
ers. The degree to which this is true, however, 
varies with the trait in question. With the ''un- 
desirable" traits of snobbishness, conceit and vul- 
garity, the coefficients are so low as to be quite 
unreliable and perhaps represent only chance. 
The same is true of neatness. But in the cases 
of refinement, humor, beauty, sociability and in- 
telligence the coefficients are fairly high. 

VIII. What correlations are found among vari- 
ous traits of character, as these are estimated hy 
associates? For example, is an individual who 
is judged intelligent also likely to be judged to be 
humorous, or refined, or snobbish, etc.? If there 
are such correlations between estimated traits, 



170 



VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 



what is their direction and amount? The follow- 
ing table shows the average correlations (from 
the two groups) in the case of all the traits: 

TABLE 10 
Showing the Inter-correlation op Estimated Traits^ 





■^ 


% 


^ 


d 


i 


^ 


.6 
o 


i 


•3 


, 


^ 


a 


M 


a 




^ 


s 


p^ 



02 


Neatness.... 




.39 


.29 


.51 


.50 


.09 


.57 


.32 


.10 


Intelligence. 


.39 




.59 


.44 


.34 


.06 


.43 


.49 


.25 


Humor 


.29 


.59 




.32 


.50 


.40 


.50 


.23 


.55 


Conceit 


.51 


.44 


.32 




.51 


.24 


.75 


.33 


.07 


Beauty 


.50 


.34 


.50 


.51 




-.09 


.41 


.56 


.32 


Vulgarity. . . 


.09 


.06 


.40 


.24 


-.09 




.40 


-.37 


.18 


Snobbishness 


.57 


.43 


.50 


.75 


.41 


.40 




.20 


-.12 


"Pefinement.. 


.32 


.49 


.23 


.33 


.56 


-.37 


.20 




.34 


iability. . 


.10 


.25 


.55 


.07 


.32 


.18 


-.12 


.34 





^ The upper parts of this table and the one following repeat^ the 
figures given in the lower parts, for greater convenience in making 
comparisons and in presenting averages. 

Interesting as these coefficients are to one who 
has the passion for correlation, it is peculiarly 
difficult to state precisely what they mean. Neat- 
ness correlates, in varying degrees, with all the 
traits except vulgarity and sociability; intelli- 
gence with all except vulgarity and perhaps so- 
ciability; humor with all except neatness, conceit 
and refinement, where the coefficients are low; 
conceit correlates especially closely with neatness, 
beauty and snobbishness; beauty with neatness, 



EXPERIMENTS, ESTIMATES, RESULTS 171 

humor, conceit and refinement; vulgarity corre- 
lates positively with only humor and snobbish- 
ness, and negatively with refinement ; refinement, 
with everything except humor, snobbishness and 
vulgarity; snobbishness with all but refinement 
and sociability; while sociability correlates with 
nothing except humor. How far these figures 
measure definite relations between different and 
specific traits, how far they measure the de- 
gree to which one's impressions of various traits 
conspire to make up one's notion of other char- 
acteristics, or how far they measure only the 
degree of confusion that exists as to the precise 
meaning of the various words, it is exceedingly 
difficult to say. 

IX. What degree of correlation exists among 
the academic records in the various college sub- 
jects? Is the individual who stands high in cer- 
tain subjects likely to stand either high or low in 
other subjects or in all subjects? The following 
table shows the inter-correlations between eight 
subjects as calculated by the rather rough mode 
of grading and averaging previously described. 
Since the correlations are by the method of rela- 
tive position, the fallacy of treating the various 
grades as susceptible of quantitative treatment 
is of very slight importance. 



m 



VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY^ 



TABLE 11 



Showing the Inter-cobrelations among Grades in Eight 

College Subjects, on the Basis of the Records 

OP THE 50 Students 





i 


u) 


*> 


^ 


bb 


i 


1 

i 


i 


8, 




m 


o 


.s< 


o 


m 


<o 


•4 




>■ 




Plh 


a 


W 


H 


W 


o 


u 


A 


<1 


Psychology. . 




.60 


.36 


.52 


.48 


.49 


.33 


.54 


.47 


Logic 


.60 




.48 


.57 


.47 


.41 


.25 


.57 


.48 


History 


.36 


.54 




.44 


.62 


.46 


.52 


.61 


.51 


Economics. . 


.52 


.57 


.44 




.51 


.43 


.45 


.71 


.52 


English 


.48 


.47 


.62 


.51 




.25 


.26 


.46 


.44 


German .... 


.49 


.41 


.46 


.43 


.25 




.39 


.38 


.40 


Chemistry. . 


.33 


.25 


.52 


.45 


.26 


.39 




.57 


.40 


Mathematics 


.54 


.57 


.61 


.71 


.46 


.38 


.57 




.55 



The correlations between the various college 
subjects are all positive, and argue against the 
commonly expressed belief in rather close special- 
ization of abilities ; the student who does well in 
one of these subjects tends to do well in aU of 
them. 

As has been frequently stated in this discus- 
sion, the data and conclusions here presented are 
by no means to be taken as final answers even to 
the specific questions asked. One cannot argue 
from what these groups of students do under the 
special conditions of this investigation to what 
they or others will do in other circumstances or 
in general. The results are presented mainly by 
way of suggesting the type of investigation which 



EXPERIMENTS, ESTIMATES, RESULTS 173 

must be carried much further before we are in 
position to evaluate properly the self-analysis 
of an individual or the judgments of associates as 
presented in testimonials, interviews, or other 
indications based on general acquaintance. In the 
case of the psychological tests, a long program 
of selection, standardization, and accumulation 
of norms is laid out for those interested in the 
further advance of vocational psychology. So 
also from the point of view of introspective analy- 
sis, consultation, advice of friends, the methods 
of interview, testimonial, etc., there is an equally 
inviting though arduous program which must be 
carried through before even the most general 
principles of evaluation and selection are known. 
It should also be insisted that the personal ex- 
perience of this or that interviewer, adviser, 
teacher or expert is by no means a sufficient basis 
for general practice. Magic, clairvoyance, phre- 
nology, physiognomies, were all founded on the 
treacherous basis of '* personal observation" and 
occasional striking coincidence. Vocational psy- 
chology will be safe from prophets and charla- 
tans only when it is made to rest on a stable 
structure of consistent and verifiable experi- 
mental data. 



V 



CHAPTER Vin 

THE SCHOOL CUKRICULUM AS A VOCATIONAL TEST 

With certain qualifications the work of the 
school curriculum may be said to constitute an 
elaborate mental test. One important function 
of the curriculum is that of selecting and identi- 
fying individuals who possess a certain type of 
mental alertness or patience. Another function is 
that of supplying the individual with certain im- 
plements, facts and ideas, certain subject matter, 
which may or may not be of direct value in his 
later life but which is at least in this way per- 
petuated and preserved. A third function is that 
of affording opportunity for the exercise of such 
specific or general abilities as the curriculum may 
call into play. 

All three of these functions have more or less 
direct vocational relevance. In the hands of in- 
dustrial and technical interests, subject matter 
becomes more and more prominent as the impor- 
tant item. As this happens the older idea of 
discipline and exercise becomes subordinate or 

implicit. But, whatever be the underlying educa- 

174 



CURRICULUM A VOCATIONAL TEST 175 

tional philosophy, the selective value of the cur- 
riculum is an inescapable fact. The public school 
system, by its processes of grading, promotion 
and certification, tends always to mark off as a 
distinct group those individuals who can and will 
meet its demands. It also attempts to differen- 
tiate the members of this group from one another 
on the basis of their ability or their inclination. 
The high schools, colleges, professional and tech- 
nical courses continue this process of elimination, 
identification and selection. According to the stu- 
dent 's ability and inclination to satisfy the re- 
quirements of the curriculum, he or she is 
dropped, graded, retarded, promoted or passed 
with honors. 

Extending, as it commonly does, over many 
years of the individual's life, conducted by a con- 
siderable number and variety of examiners, and 
presented in a diversity of forms and methods, 
school work constitutes a type of mental test 
which is unequaled in its completeness. It is 
highly important for vocational psychology to 
ascertain the degree of correlation between the 
individual's record in the curriculum test and his 
success or fitness in later life. To what degree 
is the individual's academic record prognostic of 
his industrial, domestic and professional future? 



176 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

As definite as this question is and as easy of 
solution as it may seem, it is only very recently 
that reliable data, as distinguished from unsup- 
ported opinions, have begun to be accumulated. 
The problem is complicated by the difficulty of 
securing satisfactory measures of success in later 
life, and by the difficulties encountered in follow- 
ing up the careers of those individuals whose 
early records are known. Shall success be meas- 
ured by the obstacles overcome, the income 
earned, the sacrifices made, the social usefulness 
accomplished, the amount of local and contem- 
porary publicity received, the public recognition 
accorded, the scope of activities attempted, or 
the historical eminence merited? And if more 
than one of these elements are to be considered, 
how are they to be treated commensurately ? Cer- 
tainly success may be achieved in any or several 
or all of these and other forms. For the present 
our information is limited to a few studies in 
which one or other of these aspects has been 
treated separately. As work in this field pro- 
gresses we may be better able to sum up all the 
partial results into a statement of the general 
tendencies. 

For our present purpose it may be best to bring 
together from various sources the data bearing 



CURRICULUM A VOCATIONAL TEST 177 

on certain specific questions which have been pro- 
pounded. At least three of these questions are 
distinctly relevant to the work of vocational psy- 
chology. 

I. With respect to school work itself, what rela- 
tion exists between the early success in elemen- 
tary subjects and the later success in handling 
more advanced subject matter? This question is 
important to all those who may be concerned in 
advising individuals concerning the desirability 
and probable profit of continuing their school ex- 
perience, and of entering occupations in which 
scholastic abilities may be requisite. 

Kelley has recently reported a careful study 
of the relation between the marks in the fourth, 
fifth, sixth and seventh grades and the marks re- 
ceived in the first year of high school work. The 
results, in the case of fifty-nine pupils followed 
through the six years, were as follows: 

Correlation between Marks in the Grades 
AND Marks in First High School Year 

7th grade 72 

6th grade 73 

6th grade 53 

4th grade 62 

His study further seeks to show the relative 
weight to be attributed to the work of each grade, 
by applying a formula known in statistics as a 



178 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

^'regression equation." He says, "The net con- 
clusion wMch may be drawn from these coeffi- 
cients of correlation is that it is possible to esti- 
mate a person's general ability in the first year 
[H. S.] class from the marks he has received in 
the last four years of elementary school with ac- 
curacy represented by a coefficient of correlation 
of .789, and that individual idiosyncrasies may be 
estimated, in the case of mathematics and Eng- 
lish, with an accuracy represented by a coefficient 
of correlation of .515. . . . Indeed, it seems that 
an estimate of a pupil's ability to carry high 
school work when the pupil is in the fourth grade 
may be nearly as accurate as a judgment given 
when the pupil is in the seventh grade." 

Miles finds that the correlation between the av- 
erage elementary school grade and the high school 
grade is .71. Dearborn also finds that high school 
efficiency is closely correlated with success in uni- 
versity work. He studied various groups of high 
school students, the groups containing from nine- 
ty-two to four hundred and seventy-two students 
each. These were grouped into quartiles on the 
basis of high school standing, and compared with 
similar classifications on the basis of university 
work. Dearborn summarizes his results in the 
following words ; 



CURRICULUM A VOCATIONAL TEST 179 

*'We may say then, on the basis of the results 
secured in this group (472 pupils) which is suffi- 
ciently large to be representative, that if a pupil 
has stood in the first quarter of a large class 
through high school the chances are four out of 
five that he will not fall below the first half of 
his class in the university. . . . The chances are 
but about one in five that the student who has 
done poorly in high school — ^who has been in the 
lowest quarter of his class — will rise above the 
median or average of the freshman class at the 
university, and the chances that he will prove a 
superior student at the university are very slim 
indeed. . . . The Pearson coefficient of correla- 
tion of the standings in the high schools and in 
the freshman year, for this group of 472 pupils, 
is .80. ... A little over 80 per cent of those who 
were found in the lowest or the highest quarter 
of the group in high school are found in their re- 
spective halves of the group throughout the uni- 
versity. . . . Three-fourths of the students who 
enter the university from these high schools will 
maintain throughout the university approxi- 
mately the same rank which they held in high 
school. " 

Lowell's investigation, which is discussed in 
later paragraphs, also bears directly on the ques- 



180 



VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 



tion of the relation between college entrance rec- 
ords, college grades, and later work in profes- 
sional schools. A rather different method of pro- 
cedure was adopted by Van Denburg, who studied 
the relation between the first-term marks of high 
school pupils in New York City and the length 
of time the pupils continued in school work. The 
following table gives a general idea of his re- 
sults : 



TABLE 12 

Showing the Relation between Fiest-term Marks in High 

School and the Length op Time Pupils Remain 

IN School (Van Denburg) 



First-Term 
Mark 


Percentage Leaving School in Various Years After 
Entrance into the High School 


Left 

During First 

Year 


Left in 2nd, 3rd, or | 
4th Years, or Failed 
to Graduate in 4th 


Graduated 


Below 50%. . 
60 to 59%... 
60 to 69%... 
70 to 79%... 
80 to 89%... 
90 to 100%.. 


61 
49 
39 
20 
17 
6 


39 
46 
58 
62 
46 
40 



5 
3 

18 
37 
54 



Thorndike, in referring to the significance of 
such results, says : ' ' Ten times as many of those 
marked below 50 leave in the first year as of those 
marked 90 or above. Of 115 pupils marked below 



CURRICULUM A VOCATIONAL TEST 181 

50 not one remained to graduate in four years. 
As the marks rise the percentage leaving in the 
early years steadily falls and the percentage 
graduating rises. Such prophecies . . . could 
easily be worked out for any community. They 
show that in the important matter of the length 
of stay in school a pupil's career is far from be- 
ing a matter of unpredictable fortuity. ... It 
will not be long before [we] will remember with 
amusement the time when education waited for 
the expensive tests of actual trial to tell how well 
a boy or girl would succeed with a given trade, 
with the work of college and professional school, 
or with the general task of leading a decent, law- 
abiding, humane life." 

Prompted by Dearborn's study of the relation 
between work in high school and work in the uni- 
versity, Smith made a somewhat more intensive 
study of a group of students in the University 
of Iowa. Dearborn had investigated the academic 
careers of pupils from eight large and four small 
high schools in Wisconsin, and concluded that 
three-fourths of the students entering the univer- 
sity from these high schools would maintain 
throughout the university approximately the same 
rank as they had held in high school. When the 
groups were divided into upper and lower halves, 



182 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

about seventy per cent of those in the upper high 
school section were found in the upper half of the 
university section; about the same number of 
those in the lower high school half were found in 
the lower university half. 

Smith's data showed almost precisely the same 
figures as those of Dearborn. From the Liberal 
Arts class of 1910 (one hundred and sixty stu- 
dents) those were chosen whose records were com- 
plete in both high school and university. This 
gave a total of one hundred and twenty students. 
On the basis of their standing, as based on the 
grades assigned in all subjects studied, they were 
ranked in order for each year of high school and 
university. They were then separated into quin- 
tiles on the basis of these rankings, and their 
standing in these various quintiles observed from 
year to year. 

When the students, on the basis of their gen- 
eral high school average (for the four years), are 
distributed through their respective quintiles in 
the university (general average again) the results 
are as shown in the table on page 183. 

In considering this table it is apparent that if 
the high school students were distributed through 
the various university quintiles on a purely chance 
basis, and without any reference to their high 



CURRICULUM A VOCATIONAL TEST tl83 

TABLE 13 

Showing the Relations between High School Records and 
University Records (Smith). See Text for Explanation 





University Average 


H. S. Average 


1st 
Quint. 


2nd 
Quint. 


3rd 
Quint. 


4th 
Quint. 


5th 
Quint. 


1st Quintile 

2nd Quintile 

3rd Quintile 

4th Quintile 

5th Quintile 


54% 

25% 

17% 

0% 

4% 


17% 
29% 
25% 
25% 
4% 


17% 
17% 
20% 
25% 
21% 


4% 
13% 
21% 
33% 
29% 


8% 
16% 
17% 
17% 
42% 



school records, there would tend to be twenty per 
cent of each high school quintile in each of the 
university quintiles. Any percentage higher than 
this twenty per cent thus indicates some signifi- 
cant relation between the two sets of grades. On 
the whole there is a close relation indicated. The 
tendency is clear for those in a given high school 
quintile to be found in or near the same quintile in 
their university work. The relation is particu- 
larly close in the highest and lowest quintiles. In 
the intermediate quintiles there is more or less 
shifting about. 

In the same way it is possible to classify all stu- 
dents in quintiles during their first high school 
year, and then to trace their careers through the 
following three years of high school and four 



184! 



VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 



years of college. The following tabulation shows 
the results w^hen this was done. The figures show 
the percentage of each quintUe in first year high 
school who were found in the same quintile in the 
various later years. 



TABLE 14 

Showing the Relation between Records in the First Hiqh 

School Year, and Records in Subsequent Years in 

High School and College (Smith) 



Quintiles 


High School 


University 


1 


2 


3 


4 


1 


2 


3 


4 


First 


100% 
100% 
100% 
100% 
100% 


70% 
54% 
41% 
29% 
50% 


67% 
33% 
37% 
25% 
59% 


67% 
29% 
21% 
21% 
50% 


52% 
35% 
35% 
48% 
45% 


36% 

33% 
20% 
28% 
32% 


43% 
22% 
22% 
17% 
39% 


25% 


Second 

Third 


8% 

21% 


Fourth 

Fifth 


25% 
38% 






Averages 


100% 


49% 


44% 


38% 


43% 


30% 


29% 


23% 



Here again, if the subsequent distributions were 
on a chance basis with respect to the first year 
high school grades, there would tend to be but 
twenty per cent in each of the various quintiles. 
As a matter of fact, the percentages never fall so 
low as twenty per cent, although in the senior 
college year they approach very close to this 
figure. 

It is to be noted that changes so small as from 



CURRICULUM A VOCATIONAL TEST 185 

one quintile to the iimnediately adjacent one are 
not taken into account in this table. The figures 
show only those who were in precisely the same 
quintile all the way through. The indication is 
•then that a student's performance in the first high 
school year is very significant of what his per- 
formance will be through the rest of the high 
school course, and also of significance with respect 
to what he will do in his university work. The 
significance of the early work, as has appeared in 
other studies also, becomes less and less the far- 
ther through the course one goes, so that in the 
senior year in college there is approximately a 
chance distribution with reference to the work of 
the first year high school. 

Smith also presents his results in the form of 
coefficients of correlation between various rank- 
ings. The following are the most interesting in 
the present connection : 

TABLE 15 

Correlations (Smith) 

H. S. Average and Univ. Freshman Average 48 

H. S. Average and Univ. Sophomore Average 39 

H. S. Average and Univ. Junior Average 47 

H. S. Average and Univ. Senior Average 28 

1st and 2nd Year High School 77 

1st and 3rd Year High School 67 

1st and 4th Year High School 66 

University Freshman and Sophomore 73 

University Freshman and Jmiior 61 

University Freshman and Senior 45 



186 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

These figures of course indicate the same facts 
as those derived frora the previous methods of 
expressing the data. The high school (H. S.) av- 
erage correlates throughout with the college rank- 
ing, the correspondence becoming less apparent in 
the later college years. Similarly, the good stu- 
dents in the first high school year are the good 
ones all through the high school course, and the 
able college freshmen are able as sophomores, 
juniors and seniors. But both in high school 
and in college the significance of early stand- 
ing becomes less and less as the years pro- 
gress. 

A. L. Jones ^ compared college entrance exami- 
nations with work done later in the college course, 
in the freshman and sophomore years. Two hun- 
dred men from the entering classes of 1907, 1911 
and 1912, in Columbia College, were selected for 
study. These men were arranged in four groups, 
fifty in each group, on the basis of (a) their 
marks in entrance examinations, (b) their college 
marks in the first and second college years. Group 
I contains the best fifty individuals. Group II the 
fifty next best, etc. The following compiled table 
shows where the members of each group in en- 
trance examinations stood in their college work : 

^ Educational Review, September, 1914. 



CURRICULUM A VOCATIONAL TEST 187 



TABLE 16 

Showing Relations between Entrance Records and College 
Standing (Jones) 



See Text for Explanation 



On Basis of Entrance 


On Basis of Freshman Ranking 


Examinations 


Group I 


Group II 


Group III 


Group IV 


Group I (50 men) 
Group II (50 men) 
Group III (50 men) 
Group IV (50 men); 


30 

16 

3 

1 


13 

17 
13 

7 


5 
12 
16 
17 


2 

5 

18 

25 


On Basis of Entrance 
Examinations 


On Basis of Sophomore Ranking 


Group I (13 men) 
Group II (13 men) 
Group III (13 men) 
Group IV (14 men) 


7 
4 
2 



4 
5 
4 



2 
2 
3 
6 




2 
4 
8 



It appears from this table that there is a fairly 
well-marked tendency for the men to remain in 
the group in which they start. At least the larger 
number of men are found in college in about the 
same group in which they occurred on the basis 
of entrance examinations. Jones writes, ''It is 
evident from an examination of these . . . data 
that entrance examinations, aside from other im- 
portant uses claimed for them by their advocates, 
may fitly be taken as an important indication of 
the future career of the candidate for admission. 



188 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

They should of course he supplemented, and so 
should any other means of determining prepara- 
tion for college. Those who have studied the 
question tell us that there is a high degree of cor- 
relation between intellectual qualities and others. 
A good test of intellectual fitness is, therefore, in 
some degree a test of other qualities also. En- 
trance examinations have their imperfections but 
there can be no doubt that they may serve as a 
solid foundation on which to build. ' ' 

Thorndike, on the other hand, in studying the 
relation between entrance marks and later college 
standing (Columbia College classes entering in 
1901, 1902 and 1903), finds results which lead him 
to say, ' ' The important facts concerning the rela- 
tionship of success in entrance examinations to 
success in college work . . . prove that we cannot 
estimate the latter from the former with enough 
accuracy to make the entrance examinations worth 
taking or to prevent gross and intolerable injus- 
tice being done to many individuals. . . . The rec- 
ords of eleven entrance examinations give a less 
accurate prophecy of what a student will do in 
the latter half of his college course than does the 
college record of his brother ! The correlation be- 
tween brothers in intellectual ability is approxi- 
mately .40, but that between standing in entrance 



CURRICULUM A VOCATIONAL TEST 189 

examinations and standing in college of the same 
person is only .47 for junior year (130 cases) and 
.25 for senior year (56 cases). . . . From many 
facts such as these ... it is certain that the tra- 
ditional entrance examinations, even when as fully 
safeguarded as in the case of those given by the 
College Entrance Examination Board, do not pre- 
vent incompetence from getting into college; do 
not prevent students of excellent promise from 
being discouraged or barred out altogether ; do not 
measure fitness for college well enough to earn the 
respect of students or teachers ; and do intolerable 
injustice to individuals. ' ' 

The apparent striking contradiction between 
these two reports is not, however, so serious when 
it is noted that the records of Jones were taken 
from freshman and sophomore years, while 
Thorndike's, as here quoted, were taken from 
junior and senior years. Thorndike has also pre- 
sented, in another connection, comparisons of en- 
trance examinations with the work of freshman 
and sophomore years, and in these cases his corre- 
lations are considerably higher, more nearly ap- 
proximating the results of Jones. The correla- 
tions, for the four college years, were as follows : 
freshman year, .62; sophomore year, .50; junior 
year, .47; senior year, .25. 



190 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

Apparently the only safe conclusion at present 
is that the entrance examinations are fairly use- 
ful in predicting the early college work, their prog- 
nostic value becoming less and less as the interval 
between the two measures is increased. This re- 
sult is of course to be expected. In another section 
of this book occasion is taken to show that pre- 
liminary trials are of little value in indicating the 
relative abilities of individuals when they have 
reached or approximated their limit of practice. 

II. Are the school subjects in which one is most 
interested in any way an indication of the inter- 
ests and values of later life? What, in general, 
are the facts concerning the permanence of inter- 
ests and the relation between interest and ability? 
These questions are of immediate interest to par- 
ents, teachers and vocational counsellors. 

Here again we must turn to the work of Thorn- 
dike for almost the only available information, 
and even this is only preliminary and tentative, 
the results being subject to various sources of er- 
ror. This investigator studied the interests and 
abilities in mathematics, history, literature, sci- 
ence, music, drawing and manual work. The orig- 
inal records are the judgments of one hundred in- 
dividuals concerning the order of their own inter- 
ests and abilities in these subjects at each of three 



CURRICULUM A VOCATIONAL TEST 1191' 

periods in their school career, elementary school, 
high school and college. These various judgments 
having been made as conscientiously as possible, 
correlations were determined between interests at 
different times, interests and abilities, etc. 

Individual relative interests at different times, 
according to these records, do not vary according 
to mere caprice. "A correlation of .60 or .70 seems 
to be approximately the true degree of resem- 
blance between the relative degree of an interest 
in a child of from ten to fourteen and the same 
person at twenty-one. ' ' The resemblance between 
ability in elementary years and ability in college 
is found to be .65. The correlation between inter- 
est in the last three years of elementary school and 
capacity in the college period is computed to be 
about .60. This would mean that the early interest 
would serve as a useful indicator of adult capacity. 
**The correlation between an individual's order of 
subjects for interest and his order for ability is 
one of the closest of any that are known (about 
.90).'* *'A person's relative interests are an ex- 
traordinarily accurate symptom of his relative 
capacities." 

In concluding his report Thorndike writes, ** In- 
terests are shown to be [not only permanent but 
also] sjnnptomatic, to a very great extent, of pres- 



192 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

ent and future capacity or ability. Either because 
one likes what he can do well, or because one gives 
zeal and effort to what he likes, or because interest 
and ability are both symptoms of some funda- 
mental feature of the individual 's original nature, 
or because of the combined action of all three of 
these factors, interest and ability are bound very 
close together. The bond is so close that either 
may be used as a symptom for the other almost 
as well as for itself. The importance of these 
facts for the whole field of practice with respect to 
early diagnosis, vocational guidance, the work of 
social secretaries, deans, advisers, and others who 
direct students' choices of schools, studies, and 
careers is obvious. They should be taken account 
of in such practice until they are verified or modi- 
fied by data obtained by a better method ; and such 
data should soon be collected. The better method 
is, of course, to get the measurements of relative 
interest and of relative ability, not from memory, 
but at the time, and not from individuals ' reports 
alone, but by objective tests." 

III. Is there any relation between general or 
particular academic aptitude or inclination and 
general or particular proficiency in the later do- 
mestic, industrial, commercial, professional or 
civic activities^ This question is of importance 



CURRICULUM A VOCATIONAL TEST 193 

not only to the individual and his guide but also 
to employers, agencies and society at large. 

An interesting and significant study bearing on 
this question has been reported by Nicholson, 
who investigated the relation between academic 
success and prominence in later life. The men 
graduating from Wesleyan University during the 
years 1833 to 1899, 1,667 in number, were arranged 
in three groups. In the first group were the 140 
*' honor" men, who were valedictorians or salu- 
tatorians of their classes. In the second group 
were placed all the men elected to Phi Beta Kappa, 
on the basis of high scholarship. Of these there 
were 461. In the third group were placed the re- 
maining 1,206 men. It was then determined how 
many of these men were found in the current edi- 
tion of Who's Who, or were judged, by faculty or 
fellow students, as having been or about to be of 
sufficient distinction to be included in such a di- 
rectory. The results are given in the following 
tabulation. 

Referring to these results, Nicholson remarks, 
"From this study of the careers of sixteen hun- 
dred and sixty-seven graduates, living and dead, 
where three different methods are employed in 
determining distinction in after life, it appears 
that the results are fairly constant, and we are 



194 



VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 



TABLE 17 

Showing the Relation between College Honors and Inclu- 
sion IN Who's Who (Nicholson) 

See Text for Explanation 



643 Students, of the 
years 1833-1859 


Per Cent Judged by Faculty to 
be of Who's Who Rank 


Honor Men (53) 

P.B.K. Men (167) 

Remainder (476) 


50 

32 

6 


604 Students of the 
Years 1860-1889 


Per Cent Found in 1914-15 Edition 
of Who's Who 


Honor Men (59) 

P.B.K. Men (185) 

Remainder (419) 


48 
31 
10 


420 Students of the 
Years 1890-1899 


Per Cent in Who's Who or Judged by 
Classmates as about to be There. 


Honor Men (28) 

P.B.K. Men (109) 

Remainder (311) 


50 
30 
11 


1 Total of 1667 Students 


Per Cent with Distinction Entitling 
to Inclusion in Who's Who. 


Honor Men ( 140) 

P.B.K. Men ( 461) 

Remainder (1206) 


50 

31 

9 



justified in assuming that, for this college at least, 
the chances of distinction for a high honor gradu- 
ate, one of the two or three leading scholars of 
the class, are just even ; that one out of three of 
those elected to Phi Beta Kappa is likely to 
achieve pronounced success in life; and that each 



CURRICULUM A VOCATIONAL TEST 195 

of tlie remaining members of the class has less 
than one chance in ten to become famous. In other 
words, roughly speaking, the quarter (or the fifth) 
of the class elected to Phi Beta Kappa are likely 
to supply just as many distinguished men as are 
the remaining three-quarters (now four-fifths) of 
the class." 

The study of Nicholson includes only that type 
of success which would be likely to lead to inclu- 
sion in Who 's Who, viz., the more strictly literary, 
professional, political, and academic success. The 
commercial, industrial and business careers are 
not so likely to lead to inclusion in this directory, 
and yet success in them is no less definite than in 
the professional work. It is rather difficult to de- 
termine the degree to which success in these fields 
is determined by ability alone, and to what degree 
it is a function of chance, inheritance, social 
charm, prestige, and geographical and economic 
circumstance. Nevertheless it would be interest- 
ing to know whether such measure of success as 
can be secured correlates in any way with success 
in the work of school years. 

In an unpublished study of the graduates of 
Pratt Institute, Dr. D. E. Eice has compared the 
grades achieved by students in the courses in Me- 
chanical Engineering and Electrical Engineering 



196 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

with the salaries the men were receiving several 
years after graduation. There were in all six 
classes of men, numbering about forty each — 
three classes from Mechanical Engineering and 
three from Electrical Engineering, for the years of 
1907, 1908, 1909. The salary reports were asked 
for in 1913, four to six years after graduation. 

The men were ranked according to the grades 
they received in the eight different subjects in- 
cluded in the curriculum, the grades being 10, 9, 8, 
and 7, corresponding to the ordinary grade system 
of A, B, C, D. They were then ranked according 
to the salary reported at the time of the investi- 
gation. Results for each class were treated sep- 
arately so that the time elapsing since graduation 
was not a factor in the results. The following 
table gives the results when these two rankings 
were correlated by two statistical methods of com- 
puting correlation. 

In every case the correlation between grades 
and salary is positive, although the coefficients 
are all small. This means that in the long run 
there is a general tendency for the good salaries 
to go to the men whose grades were high, but that 
there are many exceptions to the rule. Certainly 
in no class is the opposite tendency shown, for the 
good salaries to go to the poor students. It is 



CURRICULUM A VOCATIONAL TEST 197 



TABLE 18 

Showing the Correlation between School Standing and 
Salaries Earned in Later Life (Rice) 

See Text for Explanation 



Class and Year 



Cases 



Correlation by 

Pearson Method, 

and P.E. 



Correlation by 

Per Cent of Unlike 

Signs, and P.E. 



Mechanical '07 
Mechanical '08 
Mechanical '09 

Electrical '07. . 
Electrical '08. . 
Electrical '09.. 

Averages . . . 



35 
41 
39 

26 
36 
41 



.36 
.25 
.21 

.16 
.46 
.16 

.267 



.08 
.09 
.09 

.13 

.08 
.10 



.22 
.34 
.06 

.25 
.51 

.28 

.277 



.09 
.08 
.10 

.12 

.08 
.09 



probable that the correlations found here are as 
low as they are partly because in this technical 
school there is no special effort made to encour- 
age high grades for their own sake, the empha- 
sis being rather on getting a good average rat- 
ing. 

Just what these degrees of correlation mean is 
made somewhat more apparent if we treat the 
data in another way. If instead of computing co- 
efficients of correlation we divide each class of men 
into four quartiles, and determine the average 
salaries of the men in these quartiles, we get very 
definite results. The upper quartile or group will 
now contain that fourth of the class whose grades 



198 



VOCATIONAL PSYGHOLOGY 



were Mghest. The second, third and fourth qnar- 
tiles will in turn represent decreasing degrees of 
academic proficiency. If the average salaries are 
the same for all quartiles, this will mean that there 
is no relation between salary and school grades. 
But if the salary varies with the grades, this wiU 
be a significant result. The actual data are as fol- 
lows: 

TABLE 19 
Rice's Data Presented in a Revised Foem 





Cases 


Average Salaries of the 


Class and Year 


1st 
QuartUe 


2nd 
QuartUe 


3rd 
Quartile 


4th 
Quartile 


Mechanical '07 ... . 
Mechanical '08 .... 
Mechanical '09 


35 
41 
39 


$1800 
1450 
1375 


$1675 
1512 
1262 


$1362 
1512 
1313 


$1387 
1275 
1137 


Electrical '07 

Electrical '08 

Electrical '09 


26 
36 
41 


1750 
2147 
1462 


1675 
1437 
1212 


1675 
1262 
1387 


1412 
1262 
1200 


Aveiages 


' 


$1664 . 


$1462 


$1418 


$1279 


Percentages 




100% 


87% 


85% 


76% 



If the separate classes be now considered the 
results are seen to be more or less irregular, al- 
though the general tendency is apparent. If the 
average results from all six classes are consid- 
ered the results are more reliable as well as more 



CURRICULUM A VOCATIONAL TEST 199 

uniform. The average salary varies in the same 
way as do the grades. If the average salary of the 
men of the first quartile ($1,664) be taken as a 
basis of comparison and considered one hundred 
per cent, then the salaries of the men in the sec- 
ond, third and fourth quartiles are respectively 
only eighty-seven, eighty-five and seventy-six per 
cent of this amount. In general terms, the salary 
of the men in the lower or poorest quarter of the 
class, from the point of view of school grades, will 
be only three-fourths the salary of the men in 
the upper or best quarter. The two middle quar- 
tiles will differ but little from each other, al- 
though the second has the advantage, by two per 
cent, or $44, over the third quarter. 

If the class be divided into a better and a poorer 
half, then the average salary of the men in the 
upper half is seen to be $1,563, while that of the 
men in the lower half is only $1,348. The men in 
the upper half earn $215 more in a year than the 
men in the lower half. This way of expressing 
the results is both clearer and more concrete than 
the mere statement of the coefficient of correla- 
tion. 

Interesting data on all three of these preceding 
questions are to be found in A. Lawrence LowelPs 
study of the academic careers of students in Har- 



200 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

vard College, Law School and Medical School. 
This investigation included an examination into 
the college entrance examinations, the records 
attained during the college course, the subjects 
elected in this course, and the subsequent achieve- 
ment of the men in the professional schools of law 
and medicine. The statistics cover the cases of 
all men who took the degree of A. B. at Harvard 
and then graduated from the two professional 
schools connected with Harvard. Only men who 
had taken at least three years of college work in 
residence were included. The records for the Law 
School cover the twenty years from 1891 to 1910. 
Those for the Medical School cover the sixteen 
years from 1895 forward. 

The college gives degrees indicating four grades 
of distinction on the basis of scholarship. These 
are indicated as "plain," ''cum laude," ''magna 
cum laude" and "summa cum laude." The two 
professional schools grant degrees with two 
grades of distinction, viz., "plain" and "cum 
laude. ' ' 

Lowell assumes that the grade attained on the 
college entrance examinations indicates with a 
certain degree of correctness the natural scholarly 
abilities of the student. The course of studies 
elected during college reflects roughly the general 



CURRICULUM A VOCATIONAL TEST gOl^ 

interests of the student at that time. The college 
records indicate his ability in the pursuit of those 
studies, including under ability such things as per- 
sistence, patience, fidelity, zeal, as well as native 
intelligence. The records in the professional 
schools are taken as indicating quite approxi- 
mately the student's real ability to achieve suc- 
cess in the particular professional work of the 
technical sort. 

All students are consequently classified accord- 
ing to these various factors. The entrance exami- 
nations are divided into "clear" and "condi- 
tioned. ' ' The college degrees and the professional 
degrees are classified on the basis of the degree 
of distinction awarded. All students are also 
classified on the basis of their election of the four 
possible college courses: (a) literature and lan- 
guages; (b) natural sciences; (c) history and po- 
litical science; (d) philosophy and mathematics. 
The relations between these various classifica- 
tions are then presented, and analyzed in various 
ways. 

Thus it is shown that there is very little or no 
relation between the college course elected and 
the probability of achieving a degree "cum 
laude" in the professional schools. The figures 
are summed up in the following table : 



202 



VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY; 



TABLE 20 

Showing Relation between Course Elected in College and 
Honors Received in Subsequent Years in Pbopessional 
Schools (Lowell) 



Course Pursued 


Degree in Law 
School 


Degree in Medical, 
School 




^Plain 


"Cum Laude" 


Plain 


"Cum Laude" 


Lit. and Lang 

Nat. Science 

Hist, and Pol. Sci.. 
Phil, and Math. . . . 


801 

19 

627 

8 


180(18.4%) 

3(13.6%) 

129(17.1%) 

11 (57.9%) 


145 

75 

30 

6 


166(53.4%) 

81(51.9%) 

20 (44.4%) 

7 (53.8%) 



The figures suggest that ' ' as a preparation for 
the study of law or medicine it makes compara- 
tively little difference what subject is mainly pur- 
sued in college." That is to say, college interests 
in natural sciences, as indicated by the election of 
that course, does not indicate special aptitude for 
the work of medicine; nor does the election of 
courses in history and political science indicate a 
necessary superiority in the more or less related 
work of law. Lowell shows that only during the 
first year or so of the medical school do those who 
have already specialized in natural sciences have 
any advantage over those medical students who 
have specialized in other subjects. 

What is the relation between the men's rec- 
ords in college and their achievement in the pro- 



CURRICULUM A VOCATIONAL TEST 203 

f essional schools ? In the following table are given 
the number of college men of each degree of dis- 
tinction who were awarded ''cum laude" in the 
professional schools: 

TABLE 21 

Showing Relation between College Honors and Honors 
IN THE Professional Schools (Lowell) 



Record in College 


Number Awarded "Cum Laude" 
in Law 


609 Plain Degree 


40 6.6% 


305 Cum Laude 


68 22.3% 


200 Magna Cum Laude 

33 Summa Cum Laude 


80 40.0% 
20 60.0% 


Record in College 


Number Awarded "Ciun Laude" 
in Medicine 


239 Plain 


86 36.0% 
65 76.5% 


85 Cum Laude 


39 Magna Cum Laude 

2 Summa Cum Laude 


34 87.2% 
2 100.0% 



It is apparent at once that there is a close rela- 
tion between the college records and the records 
in the professional schools. Both in law and in 
medicine those who are awarded honors tend 
largely to be those who were awarded honors in 
college. And the higher the college honors, the 
greater the percentage of men receiving honors 
in the professional schools. 

We may now ask how far back in the academic 
careers of these men it is possible to predict their 



204 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

probable acbievement in the professional schools. 
Have those who are awarded the professional hon- 
ors already distinguished themselves from their 
fellows at the time of their entrance into college ? 
The following summary of the results presented 
by Lowell in much more detail will help answer 
this question: 

TABLE 22 

Showing Relations between Various Academic Recoeds 
(Lowell) 

Men Graduating from the Law School and 
Receiving "Cxim Laude" in Law 

Per 
cent 

Entered college "clear" 26. 4 

Entered college "conditioned" 9.0 

Graduated from college with distinction 31. 2 

Graduated from college without distinction 6.5 

Entrance clear and college distinction 37 . 9 

Entrance conditioned and college with distinction 18. 1 

Entrance clear and college without distinction 11.1 

Entrance conditioned and college without distinction 2.9 



Men Graduating from the Medical School and 
Receiving "Cum Laude" in Medicine 

Per 
cent 

Entered college "clear" , 59 . 1 

Entered college "conditioned" 43.0 

Graduated from college with distinction 80. 1 

Graduated from college without distinction 36.0 

Entrance clear and college distinction 78 . 1 

Entrance conditioned and college distinction 84 . 6 

Entrance clear and college without distinction 42.4 

Entrance conditioned and college without distinction 31.4 



CURRICULUM A VOCATIONAL TEST 205 

Here the result is clearly suggested that early 
merit in academic work means success in the pro- 
fessional schools, whether one considers entrance 
examinations or college records. And the most 
probable group for professional honors is made up 
of those men who combined both entrance and col- 
lege distinction. This is especially striking in the 
case of the law school. In the case of the med- 
ical school the differences are not quite so great, 
although the general tendency is quite the same. 
This is said to be due to the lower standard re- 
quired for medical honors during these years. 
Lowell concludes: *'The men who are destined 
to take the highest rank in the law and medical 
schools are markedly better scholars, both in the 
preparatory schools and in college, than their fel- 
lows. In intellectual power, as in other things, the 
boy is father to the man." 

On the whole, then, all these studies point in a 
consistent direction; those who are destined to 
achieve distinction and success begin to do so at 
an early age. Whether measured by achievement 
in academic courses, honors in professional and 
technical courses, salary earned after graduation, 
or inclusion among lists and directories of eminent 
men, success in later life is suggested by success in 
the early work of the school curriculum. In spite 



206 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

of frequent comments to the contrary, the school 
curriculum would seem to constitute a useful test 
in prognosticating at least the most probable qual- 
ity of the individual's later work. 

But our original three questions are at present 
answered with very unequal reliability. With re- 
spect to the relation between early success or fail- 
ure in elementary school subjects and success or 
failure in handling more advanced subject matter, 
the evidence is clear and definite. 

On the question as to the permanence of inter- 
ests and the relation between interest and ability, 
the evidence is far from adequate for vocational 
purposes. While the conclusion suggested is posi- 
tive in Thorndike's study, the investigator recog- 
nizes that the results require confirmation or refu- 
tation at the hands of more reliable and verifiable 
information. It has appeared fairly certain that 
interest, as reflected in choice of college subjects, 
bears no relation to ability to undertake the work 
of at least two definite branches of professional 
training. 

On the third question, concerning the relation 
between general or particular academic aptitude 
or inclination and general or particular proficiency 
in later domestic, industrial, commercial, pro- 
fessional or civic activities, the data, although con- 



CURRICULUM A VOCATIONAL TEST 207 

sistent, are far from complete. Here, then, as in 
so many other aspects of vocational psychology, 
we find an inviting field of research and an abun- 
dance of interesting problems. 



CHAPTER IX 

THE DETERMINANTS OF VOCATIONAL APTITUDE 

Without attempting to distinguish between the 
different detailed occupations, either on the basis 
of materials dealt with, the social or individual 
purposes realized, or the special qualifications de- 
manded, we can still divide vocations broadly into 
five general types, depending on the degree to 
which they are likely to call for complete and nor- 
mal psychological equipment. Such a classifica- 
tion is of little service in the concrete guidance of 
individuals, since the general types include work 
of the most diverse sorts ; but it may be useful in 
suggesting the various types of qualities that are 
of vital importance in determining aptitude for 
any work at all, and may in this way aid in outlin- 
ing the work of fu^^^her investigation. 

1. In the first place there are many useful and 
remunerative types of labor which can be per- 
formed by a domesticated animal or an imbecile, 
when working under constant or close supervision. 
Hauling loads, mowing grass, felling timber, saw- 
ing wood, digging holes, breaking stone, weaving 

208 



' DETERMINANTS OF APTITUDE 209 

doormats, and the simple types of work commonly 
performed in institutions for the mentally de- 
ficient are instances. The detection of individuals 
thus poorly equipped, their congregation and seg- 
regation under supervision, and their useful em- 
ployment, are at once psychologically easy and 
economically desirable, as has already been indi- 
cated in detail in Chapter III. 

2. Somewhat more abundant and diversified are 
those forms of employment for the unspecialized 
mental competent. This requires only a suffi- 
cient degree of intelligence to enable the individ- 
ual to escape classification as a mental incompe- 
tent. One who is capable of earning a living under 
favorable circumstances, in the absence of aggres- 
sive competition and without close supervision, 
can find his or her level in the ''blind alley" oc- 
cupations. These offer no prospects of promo- 
tion to positions of responsibility and skill, and 
by definition, this group of individuals afford suit- 
able workers for these occupauons. They fill the 
gap between the feeble-minded and that degree of 
intelligence which the most moderately endowed 
average individual typifies. Rough clerking and 
attending, simple personal and domestic service, 
delivering goods of small value, laundry work of 
the mechanical sort, supervised manual and agri- 



210 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

cultural labor, waiting on domesticated animals, 
standardized and mechanical factory operations, 
wrapping, cleaning, polishing, petty shop-keep- 
ing, running errands and freight elevators, street 
cleaning, janitorial assistance, etc., are forms of 
work about equally difficult and satisfying. They 
do not involve the acquisition of special skill or 
technical knowledge and they are capable of per- 
formance, in the main, by almost any physically 
able person above the status of f eeble-mindedness. 
We may expect that in the very near future there 
will be provided standardized scales for the deter- 
mination of general intelligence of this degree. 
Even now it is fairly easy to select from a group 
of children those who, while not positively mentally 
defective, are nevertheless slow of comprehension, 
stupid, unable to acquire new knowledge and skill 
with facility, and perhaps disinclined or unable to 
form the moral and social habits of honesty, clean- 
liness, promptness, truthfulness and economy. 
Since these can fill the ''blind alley" occupations 
with fair satisfaction they should be ' ' guided" into 
the first available positions of this kind. 

Thorndike has advocated a series of tests, ex- 
perience with which leads him to say : 

"Suppose that the general intellectual ability 
of the dullest men who are able to support and 



DETERMINANTS OF APTITUDE 211 

look after themselves (men who though temperate 
and strong earn say $400 a year in good times in 
New York City) be represented by a and that of 
Aristotle or Goethe by a -\-h, the difference, h, be- 
ing 100. Then the amount of such ability assigned 
by the tests alone would not, on the average, vary 
from the individual's true amount by more than 
5 ; and would not vary therefrom by more than 14 
in one case out of a hundred. The 5 and 14 are 
very cautious estimates, 4 and 11 being probably 
nearer what such an experiment would in fact 
reveal. ' ' 

He further remarks, ' ' There is excellent reason 
to believe that it is literally true that the result of 
two hours' tests properly chosen from those al- 
ready tested gives a better diagnosis of an edu- 
cated adult's general intellectual ability than the 
result of the judgments of two teachers or friends 
who have observed him in the ordinary course of 
life each for a thousand hours. ' ' ^ Interesting ap- 
plications of tests of this general character have 
been reported by Scott. Workers of various kinds, 
such as salesmen and clerks, were graded by their 
employers or supervisors on the basis of their ac- 

^The series of tests proposed, and an especially clear discussion of 
the problems, methods and characteristic results of these tests, is to 
be foimd in Science, Jan. 24, 1913, pp. 133-142, in Thorndike's arti- 
cle on "Educational Diagnosis." 



iS12 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

tual ability at their task. It was possible in some 
cases to get very accurate objective measures of 
ability to seU goods, etc., by keeping records of 
achievement over a considerable period of time. 
These objective measures have been compared 
with the results of psychological tests adminis- 
tered at the time the men were employed. Posi- 
tive correlations ranging in several instances as 
high as .80 to .90 were secured. This means that 
ability in the performance of the particular men- 
tal tests used was a very reliable sign of ability 
in the field. Various instances similar to these 
have already been described in Chapter 5. 

3. If, as seems quite likely, it be ultimately 
demonstrated that there are some characteristics, 
aptitudes and capacities that depend directly on 
congenital endowment, special nervous and sen- 
sory characteristics of a valuable kind, we may 
mark off another group of occupations for which 
particular individuals are well adapted, though 
not exclusively so, by original nature. Among the 
traits which have been said to occur in some such 
direct hereditary way, or as the result of unex- 
plaiQed mutation or deviation from type, are: 
mathematical aptitude, ability in drawing, mu- 
sical composition, singing, poetic reaction, mili- 
tary strategy, chess playing. Maternity, as a vo- 



DETERMINANTS OF APTITUDE 213 

cation, is of course strictly sex limited. Pitch dis- 
crimination seems to depend on structural factors 
which are not susceptible of improvement by prac- 
tice. The same may be said of various forms of 
professional athletic achievement. Color blind- 
ness seems to be an instance of the conspicuous 
absence of such a unit characteristic. ' ' Poets, ' ' it 
is said, ^'are born, not made." Many of these 
apparent unit characteristics are so relatively in- 
dependent that they often occur in quite surpris- 
ing degree in individuals who are otherwise im- 
becilic. Mathematical, musical, graphic and deco- 
rative aptitudes, mechanical memory, and certain 
types of manual dexterity and mechanical cun- 
ning are frequently exhibited by the idiot savant. 
By the idiot savant is meant an individual who is 
in most respects mentally defective, who perhaps 
cannot dress himself, cannot adequately learn to 
speak or write, but who possesses some particular 
ability to a surprising degree. Such individuals 
may be able to perform on various musical instru- 
ments, to compose music, to sketch designs and 
objects in an imitative manner, to remember long 
lists of disconnected names or numbers, to weave 
acceptably such articles as rugs and scarfs, or to 
construct complicated mechanical objects such as 
furniture, pumps, and sailing vessels. 



214« VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

Cases of rare possession of unit characters con- 
stitute the ''genius" of ordinary conversation. 
These seem to present no problem for vocational 
psychology. Their marked unusualness renders 
them sufficiently obvious, even to the individual 
who does not systematically analyze himself. Such 
a prodigy requires a generous friend and an op- 
portunity rather than a vocational expert. 

4. There remain two further types of work, in 
which vocational psychology really finds its true 
task. There are on the one hand a large number 
of occupations that require neither unusual intel- 
ligence, special aptitude, nor technical training, 
such as those of the small tradesmen, responsible 
clerks, collectors, watchmen, agents, solicitors, 
motormen, conductors, soldiers, cashiers, cooks, 
nursemaids, etc. Above all, these types of work 
require the moral and social virtues, such as hon- 
esty, courtesy, truthfulness, patience, promptness, 
cleanliness, etc. Their lack of need of special tech- 
nical knowledge is indicated by the apprenticeship 
method by which most of them are commonly be- 
gun. Also, the absence of simple and direct tests 
of the presence of these moral and social virtues 
and habits requires that for a long time to come 
this method of trial, combined with the judgments 
of associates in the form of testimonial, personal 



DETERMINANTS OF APTITUDE 215 

recommendation, etc., must be continued. If psy- 
chology, in the immediate or remote future, shall 
ever discover or invent expedient tests for the 
measurements of these moral characteristics, it 
will have done a work that is at present equaled 
only by the formation of the various graded scales 
for measuring more strictly intellectual capacities. 
At present no such tests are vouched for by even 
the most enthusiastic of prophets. 

5. Finally, and closely related to these occupa- 
tions calling mainly for moral habits and social 
reactions, come the bulk of the world's occupa- 
tions, those adequately performed by and consti- 
tuting the permanent task of the man or woman 
of average intelligence. By average intelligence 
we do not of course imply any uniform or stand- f 
ardized homogeneous equipment. We mean those | 
varying degrees of intellectual proficiency, educa- \ 
tive docility, social cooperativeness and instinctive 
adequacy which fill the major section of the curve 
of distribution, that between the feeble-minded | 
and obviously stupid, on the one hand, and on the \ 
other the genius, with special and distinguished j 
traits or capacities. _j 

In these occupations the degree of intelligence 
is by no means the sole determinant of either suc- 
cessful or satisfactory performance. Tempera- 



216 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

mental characteristics, such as those enumerated 
by Schneider and by Thorndike, the local and wan- 
dering inclinations, active and sedentary disposi- 
tions, tendencies to competitiveness, imitation, 
suggestibility, sympathy, curiosity, and the entire 
series of instinctive propensities, dominant orig- 
inal or acquired types of satisfaction and annoy- 
ance, attitudinal, volitional and emotional differ- 
ences, and the moral and social traits, such as per- 
sistence, frankness, piety, loyalty, zeal, all these 
may be expected to combine in varying relations 
of compensation and reenforcement, substitution 
and facilitation. What one lacks in quickness it is 
often possible to make up in persistence; what 
another lacks in ambition and competitiveness he 
may supply in the form of loyalty and zeal ; rela- 
tive intellectual inferiority is often and easily bal- 
anced by the display of social charm; persistent, 
well-directed and enthusiastic effort or even a 
good vocabulary may enable one to compete suc- 
cessfully with the exceptional genius who does 
not display these incentives or advantages. 

In the proposals to direct individuals into their 
proper life careers, the advocates have quite com- 
monly failed to make sufficient allowance for the 
overwhelming importance of incentive, motive, at- 
titude and purpose, and the large role they play 



DETERMINANTS OF APTITUDE 217 

in determining the possible achievements of a 
nervous system. It is well enough to test the mem- 
ory span, attention type, and reaction time of an 
applicant for a job as motorman on a street car. 
It is still more important to learn the strength 
of his instinctive competitive reactions, to meas- 
ure the degree of his belief in hell or in socialism, 
or the firmness of his intention to effect the higher 
education of his children. By ''more important" 
I mean better calculated to reveal his fitness for 
the work. I would rather trust my life and limb to 
a motorman whose feeble memory span is re- 
enforced by a loyal devotion to the comfort of his 
grandmother than to a mnemonic prodigy whose 
chief actuating motive in life is to be a "good fel- 
low." 

These comments should not be construed as an 
underestimation of the usefulness of the simple in- 
tellectual test as a preliminary precaution in en- 
gaging employees or in detecting extreme depar- 
tures from the mode or average. The use of such 
tests in discovering such departures and variants 
as idiocy, imbecility and general stupidity has 
been amply justified by experience with them. 
But we are primarily concerned here with the de- 
termination of individual differences and qualifica- 
tions within the large middle range of the curve of 



^18 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

distribution. My conviction is that, in the case of 
the average individual, we must either : 

1. Demonstrate that these important non-ra- 
tional determinants of vocational aptitude and 
satisfaction correlate very, very closely with more 
strictly intellectual capacity;, 

2. Postpone the entire work of vocational guid- 
ance in these cases, on the basis of psychological 
examination, until that distant day when these 
characteristics can be approached by means of 
scales and norms ; or 

3. Otherwise guidance must rest, as it now 
largely does in democratic communities, on the 
broad knowledge of opportunity afforded by in- 
dustrial and pre-vocational training, the encour- 
agement of thorough and systematic self -scrutiny, 
and the method of repeated trials. 

The first of these alternatives has scarcely been 
attempted; the second will probably not occur in 
our immediate generation ; the third we have had 
always with us. 

It is important to note that the employments 
here referred to are not ''blind alley" occupations. 
They all offer possibilities of promotion and ad- 
vancement which in the main are so open to com- 
petition that the individual inevitably tends to 
reach that level of responsibility, independence, 



DETERMINANTS OF APTITUDE 219 

opportunity and remuneration whicli Ms total 
equipment merits. It is also important that pro- 
motion or advancement by no means implies the 
continued use of the particular traits which dis- 
tinguished the individual from his fellows on the 
lower levels of achievement. Thus the boy who 
enters business as a responsible clerk may often 
move on through the work of sales management, 
buying, general promotion, superintendency, and 
ultimate partnership. The capable artisan or me- 
chanic may proceed from the work of general 
helper to that of special expert workman, fore- 
man, superintendent, inspector, contractor, and 
commissioner of public works or postmaster gen- 
eral. Marked boyhood propensities for wood- 
work indicate neither that the lad is capable of 
moving through these very diverse steps of pro- 
motion, nor, on the other hand, that he must for- 
ever remain a journeyman or an expert workman. 
Progress in these vocations does not then imply, 
in fact almost never does imply, merely increas- 
ing the quantity or quality of the work at which 
one starts. The promotion of a teacher is often 
from teaching and disciplining classes satisfacto- 
rily, to clerical assistance in the principal's office, 
the principalship, general school superintendence, 
administrative counselling and pubKc lecturing, 



220 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

or the college or national presidency. The case of 
the teacher of biology who becomes the principal 
of a commercial high school is not at all unprece- 
dented. For occupations of this character and for 
this main group of average individuals it is in- 
deed hopeless to seek for vocational psychographs. 
It is here if anywhere that the general principle 
holds that one who does anything well could have 
done almost anything else well if he had cared to 
try. But the degree to which one cares is not 
measured by reaction time or cancellation tests. 
The question of the degree to which ability of one 
sort implies ability of other sorts is one of the 
several matters to be considered in a later chapter. 
This fivefold division of the vocations is based 
on the degree to which the tasks involved require 
complete and normal psychological equipment. 
The foregoing consideration of these five main oc- 
cupational groups may be said to constitute a brief 
summary of the present outstanding results of vo- 
cational psychology. The mentally incompetent 
can easily be discovered at an early age by the use 
of the graded intelligence scales. Their subse- 
quent direction into forms of useful work appro- 
priate to their degree of defect is not a psycho- 
logical enterprise, but, rather, a civic obligation 
and industrial economy. The apparently small 



DETERMINANTS OF APTITUDE 221 

group of individuals who are by original nature 
fitted for the pursuit of work involving special or 
unit characters will, whether otherwise incompe- 
tent or generally capable, commonly demonstrate 
their unique abilities without the application of 
psychological technique. The much larger group 
of unspecialized workers, requiring rather higher 
degrees of mental competence, may be chosen 
without difficulty with the aid of the standard 
mental scales and norms, their academic records, 
and the judgments of their associates. These may 
be guided into such tasks as involve mainly a mod- 
erate degree of intellectual capacity and make no 
notable demand for the exercise of the social and 
moral virtues. The vocational psychology of the 
future will find its chief problems in dealing with 
the numerous and permanent tasks requiring 
workers who, in addition to their varying degrees 
of strictly intellectual proficiency, possess par- 
ticular or complete instinctive, emotional and voli- 
tional equipment, and who are amenable to those 
social and educational agencies which seek to im- 
press upon them the moral virtues of their com- 
munity and age. 



CHAPTER X 

THE VOCATIONAL APTITUDES OF WOMEN" 

By 
Leta Stetter Hollingwoeth, Ph. D. 

Bellevue Hospital, New York City 

It is customary for authors, in discussing voca- 
tional problems, to assume that the vocational fu- 
ture of girls is determined in advance by the fact 
of sex. Not infrequently the lack of provision 
for domestic training in our high schools and col- 
leges is indicated at length, and suggestions for 
establishing the domestic arts and sciences on a 
firmer basis in the educational system are ad- 
vanced. Some paragraphs may be devoted to a 
discussion of the statistics which show that thou- 
sands of girls go from school into industry, and 
to an inquiry as to what training is best fitted to 
assist them in earning a living for the period in- 
tervening between graduation and matrimony. 
With this the discussion of vocational problems 
ends, so far as girls are concerned, and the re- 
maining space is given over to more adequate 

222 



VOCATIONAL APTITUDES OF WOMEN 223 

consideration of the vocational aptitudes and guid- 
ance of boys. 

It is the purpose of this chapter to inquire 
whether there are any innate and essential sex 
differences in tastes and abilities, which would 
afford a scientific basis for the apparently arbi- 
trary and traditional assumption that the voca- 
tional future of all girls must naturally fall in 
the domestic sphere, and consequently presents 
no problem, while the future of boys is entirely 
problematical, and may lie in any one of a score 
of different callings, according to personal fitness. 
We shall try to determine whether the present 
expectation that all women will follow the same 
vocation, i. e., housekeeping, is founded on any 
fact or facts of human intellect, or whether it 
arises merely from ideas of traditional expedi- 
ency connected with the care of the young, and 
whether it leads to a waste of energy and of in- 
tellectual talents. 

The discussion will take the form of five general 
questions, together with the answers which are to 
be made to each in the light of experimental psy- 
chology: (1) Are there innate sex differences in 
average intelligence? (2) Is either sex more vari- 
able than the other in mental traits? (3) Are 
there any special causes of intellectual inefficiency 



'S.M VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

affecting one sex but not the other? (4) Are there 
any sex differences in affective or instinctive 
equipment which would naturally lead to voca- 
tional differentiation of the sexes? (5) What ex- 
planation is to be given of the traditional division 
of labor between the sexes ? 

It will be necessary at the outset to draw a clear 
distinction between the literature of opinion and 
the literature of fact. The literature of opinion 
includes all written statements, made by scientific 
men and others, not based on experimental evi- 
dence. The literature of opinion on the subject of 
sex differences in mental traits is voluminous. It 
appears in the writings of Nietzsche, Schopen- 
hauer, Mill, Mobius, and others. By the literature 
of fact is meant those written statements based 
on experimental data, which have been obtained 
under carefully controlled conditions, and which 
may be verified by anyone competent to under- 
stand and criticize them. In this chapter we shall 
seek the answers to the propounded questions in 
the literature of fact alone, neglecting as irrele- 
vant to the discussion the entire literature of 
opinion. 

Since the discussion is limited to the literature 
of fact, it will of necessity refer only to literature 
of a comparatively recent date. Until about fif- 



VOCATIONAL APTITUDES OF WOMEN 225 

teen years ago there had been practically no at- 
tempt to collect precise data on the subject of sex 
differences in mental abilities. Before experi- 
mental data were sought the hypothesis was ac- 
cepted that human females are, by original nature, 
different from and inferior to human males, in- 
tellectually. The factor of sex determined every- 
thing; the way to discover whether a given indi- 
vidual was capable of any given intellectual task 
was not to let the individual undertake the task 
and to judge by the result, but to indicate the sex 
of the person in question. 

Coincident with the intense controversy which 
rose in the nineteenth century over the higher edu- 
cation of women, a number of statistical studies 
were carried on by the questionnaire method. 
These were followed by experimental studies, and 
at the opening of the twentieth century several 
experiments were being made to investigate the 
matter of sex dijEferences in intellect. About this 
time also the idea began to gain headway that 
whatever differences exist between the sexes as 
we find them in the world may be due to training 
and not to original nature; and it began to be 
pomted out that this aspect of the matter compli- 
cates even experimental investigation in ways dif- 
ficult to control. 



226 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

"We may speak here of the experiments on brain 
weight which were published and much discussed 
about thirty years ago. Eomanes, among others, 
insisted that the male brain was, on the average, 
several grams heavier than the female brain, and 
for a time it was supposed that the fact of innate 
female inferiority had been thus satisfactorily 
established. However, it was later demonstrated 
that relative to total body weight the female brain 
is as heavy as the male brain. It was also found 
that no positive correlation can be established be- 
tween brain weight and intellect. 

In 1906 Helen Bradford Thompson published 
her dissertation, from Chicago University, en- 
titled ''The Mental Traits of Sex." This volume 
gives a summary of the scattered bits of experi- 
mental work done previous to that time, and pre- 
sents her numerous experiments on a group of 
men and a group of women at Chicago University. 
The result of her tests in various mental traits is 
that the differences between the sexes were in no 
case as great as the individual differences within 
either sex. Men differed from each other in these 
experiments (as did women also, among them- 
selves), as much as men differed from women. In 
only two of the many traits tested was a reliable 
difference found between the central tendencies of 



VOCATIONAL APTITUDES OF WOMEN 22l 

the sexes. In speed of voluntary movement (tap- 
ping) men were quicker than women, and in mem- 
ory women were superior to men. On the whole, 
however, the result indicated equality of mental 
ability between the sexes.^ It will be enough for 
the present purposes to say that after about 
twenty years of collecting data by scientific experi- 
ment, the hypothesis that there is any innate sex 
difference in average intellectual ability has been 
abandoned by all psychologists who base their 
statements on scientific evidence. For example. 
Dr. E. L. Thorndike, in the most recent edition of 
''Educational Psychology" (1914), writes as fol- 
lows, in summing up the experimental work on 
sex differences in average intellectual ability : 

"The most important characteristic of these dif- 
ferences is their small amount. The individual 
differences within either sex so enormously out- 
weigh any difference between the sexes that for 
all practical purposes any such difference may be 
disregarded. . . . As is well known the experi- 
ments of the past generation in educating women 

^ There was published in the October (1914) issue of the 
Psychological Bulletin a summary of all important experi- 
mental work done on sex differences in recent years. Any 
reader wishing to take up the evidence greatly in detail will 
do well to consult all of the references there given. 



^^8 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

have shown their equal competence in school work 
of elementary, secondary and collegiate grade. 
. . . The psychologist's measurements lead to the 
conclusion that this equality of achievement comes 
from an equality of natural gifts, not from an 
overstraining of the lesser talents of women." 

Thus our first question. Are there innate sex 
differences in average intelligence, which would 
call for differentiation of vocations on the ground 
of sex? may be thus answered: So far as the lit- 
erature of fact tells us, we know of no considerable 
sex differences in average mental ability. The 
evidence of experimental science (and on this 
point there is now a large amount of evidence 
available) shows that by the test of averages the 
sexes have equal ability to perform mental tasks. 

Our second question, Is there a sex difference 
in variability in mental traits which would call for 
a differentiation of vocation on the ground of 
sex? has not been so long nor so thoroughly in- 
vestigated by experimentalists as has the first 
question. What we are trying to discover here 
is whether, when tested in any given mental trait, 
a group of boys will differ more from one another 
than will a group of girls (similarly selected and 
equal in number) differ from one another. In 
pther words, are the members of one sex very 



VOCATIONAL APTITUDES OF WOMEN 229 

mucli alike in tastes, interests and abilities, while 
the members of the other sex differ over a wide 
range of tastes, interests and abilities ? Obviously 
this might be the case, though the two groups 
yielded an average exactly the same in such traits. 
The answer to this second question will be of de- 
cided significance for vocational guidance. For 
example, if it were shown by experimental data 
that human females are, by original nature, 'rather 
closely alike, whereas human males differ from 
one another by wide extremes, we should have 
scientific grounds for concluding that social jus- 
tice and social economy are well served by the 
present policy of guiding all females into a single 
occupation, while males are encouraged to enter 
the greatest possible variety of callings. 

The first discussion of the comparative varia- 
bility of the sexes was broached about a century 
ago by an anatomist, Meckel. It is very interest- 
ing (as well as amusing), in view of subsequent 
ideas about variability, to note what Meckel said. 
He thought the human female to be more variable 
than the human male, and he opined that, ' * since 
woman is the inferior animal and variability is a 
sign of inferiority, ' ' the conclusion was justified ! 
Fifty years later, when Darwin put a different 
face upon variability, showing it to be an advan- 



230 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

tage and a cliaracteristic affording the greatest 
hope for progress, the greater variability of the 
male began to be affirmed everywhere in the lit- 
erature of opinion. Karl Pearson alone took issne 
with this view, which was current in the nineteenth 
century and is still widely credited, and pointed 
out that there existed as yet no literature of fact 
regarding comparative variability (though men 
of science had not on this account restrained them- 
selves from uttering the most positive statements 
concerning it). Pearson thereupon actually gath- 
ered and computed hundreds of measurements of 
human beings, and presented his results in 1897, 
in a comprehensive article entitled "Variation in 
Man and Woman. ' ' He clearly demonstrated that 
there is, in fact, no indication of greater male vari- 
ability, when actual anatomical measurements of 
adult human beings are treated with mathematical 
insight. Immediately Havelock Ellis, whose opin- 
ions were chiefly affected by Pearson's article, re- 
plied that when adults are made the subject of in- 
vestigation, no information is gained regarding 
the matter of inherent or original differences in 
variability. Since birth, life and death, on account 
of social customs, etc., affect the sexes unequally, 
no one can say, in the case of adults, how much 
may be due to environment and how much to orig- 



VOCATIONAL APTITUDES OF WOMEN 231 

inal nature. If Ellis liad thought of this criticism 
before he wrote his own book, ^'Man and 
Woman," his chapter on ^'The Variational Ten- 
dency of Men" would certainly not have been pub- 
lished. However, his criticism of Pearson's ma- 
terial is no less just because he failed to apply it 
in his own case. It is true that measurements of 
adults do not tell us what might be the case with 
infants, who have not yet been subjected to the 
formative and selective influences of environment 
and training. Yet Pearson's article remained 
practically the only literature of fact regarding 
the comparative anatomical variability of the 
sexes until the year 1914. In 1914 Montague and 
HoUing'worth published in the American Journal 
of Sociology an article setting forth in full the 
measurements of two thousand new-bom infants, 
one thousand of each sex. The statistical result 
shows no difference whatever in variability be- 
tween the sexes. 

It may seem irrelevant to dwell upon anatomical 
data, when the purpose of this chapter is to deal 
with mental aptitudes. The pertinence of the data 
cited, however, lies in the fact that if any sex dif- 
ference in physical variability could be estab- 
lished, this would suggest (though it would not 
prove) the existence of a sex difference in mental 



232 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

variability also. No experimental studies have 
ever been made for the express purpose of deter- 
mining whether there exist sex differences in men- 
tal variability. Such scattered data as we possess 
have come incidentally from studies made with 
some other chief purpose in view. Such data were 
collected and summarized in the American Journal 
of Sociology for January, 1914. There was at 
that time very little evidence that could be cited 
on this subject, but such as there was gave no 
ground for maintaining the existence of any sex 
difference in variability. Since 1914 Trabue's ex- 
periments, with ' ' completion tests, ' ' performed on 
about 1,300 school children, have been published; 
the Courtis arithmetic tests on several thousands 
of school children in New York have been made 
public; Terman has tested 1,000 unselected chil- 
dren by the Binet-Simon tests ; and Pyle has un- 
dertaken his study in the measurement of school 
children. The evidence from these extensive ex- 
periments is in all cases that there is no sex dif- 
ference in mental variability, as thus measured. 
It is necessary also for the reader to bear in 
miad that there is as yet much controversy among 
those best equipped to understand the problems 
of variation, as to the proper methods of meas- 
uring comparative variability. The mathematical 



VOCATIONAL APTITUDES OF WOMEN 233 

considerations involved need not be rehearsed 
here. But until it has been definitely determined 
just how comparative variability can be scientifi- 
cally measured, it would seem premature to make 
any final statement as to sex differences in this 
respect. 

We can therefore answer our second question 
thus : There is little or no agreement among those 
best qualified to speak, as to what constitutes the 
scientific method of measuring comparative vari- 
ability. But according to the methods now deemed 
the most reliable, and according to those studies 
wherein presumably correct methods of measure- 
ment have been employed, there is no reason to 
suppose that there is any sex difference in varia- 
bility, so far as the numerous traits tested are con- 
cerned. There has never been an experimental 
study made in which the sampling from both sexes 
was large, random, equal, and from groups of 
equal homogeneity socially and racially, that 
showed any reliable sex difference in variability. 
If we adhere to the literature of fact, we must 
conclude that, so far as we know, human females 
differ from each other as much as do human males 
in abilities and aptitudes. 

We now come to the inquiry as to whether there 
are any special causes of intellectual inefficiency 



234! VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

whicli affect one sex but not the other. Under this 
topic we may consider the periodic function, which 
characterizes girls and women, but which does not 
characterize boys and men. This periodic func- 
tion has always been the object of superstition and 
taboo, and is such even among the civilized peoples 
of today. The literature of opinion is replete with 
references to it as a source of intellectual weak- 
ness and irresponsibility. We may let Frederick 
Harrison speak for a large group of writers on 
this point : 

'' Supposing all other forces equal, it is just the 
percentage of periodical unfitness which makes the 
whole difference between the working capacity of 
the sexes. It is owing to a very natural shrinking 
from hard facts, and a somewhat misplaced con- 
ventionality that this fundamental point has been 
kept out of sight." 

The literature of opinion abounds in different 
notions, inconsistencies, and contradictory in- 
stances in the matter of the periodic function, and 
its alleged enormous influence on the intellectual 
and vocational life of women. Much of the oppo- 
sition to the education of women was based on it, 
and it has even been exploited as a good reason 
why political freedom should be denied to women. 
It is positively stated that women are on this ac- 



VOCATIONAL APTITUDES OF WOMEN 235 

count unfitted to pursue professional and com- 
mercial life; yet it is not proposed that cooks, 
scrub women, mothers, nursemaids, housekeepers 
or dancers should be periodically relieved from 
their labors and responsibilities. 

There is almost no literature of fact concerning 
the periodic function as related to the mental abili- 
ties of women. No effort had ever been made to 
subject this matter to study by instruments and 
methods of precision until very recently. Psy- 
chologists, while often stating the influence of 
periodicity on mental life to be fundamental and 
characteristic, entirely neglected to consider it 
when performing experiments on women subjects. 
In 1909 Voitsecovsky, at Petrograd, performed an 
experiment on six women by means of instruments 
of precision. He thought he found a positive re- 
sult and that there was shown to be an actual in- 
fluence of periodicity on certain mental functions. 
His conclusions are, however, largely invalidated 
by the fact that all his subjects knew the purpose 
of the experiment, and by the fact that he neg- 
lected to use, as a control, human beings not sub- 
ject to the phenomenon in question. He also neg- 
lected to present his data in full, so that the relia- 
bility of his conclusions might be calculated. 

Two studies of this phenomenon appeared in 



236 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

1914. The first was a study by Dr. A. E. Arnold, 
as to the effect of school work on the periodic func- 
tion, and this is reported in the January number 
of the American Physical Education Review. 
This investigator suspected, from his experience 
as a physician and teacher, * ' that much of the in- 
capacity claimed was fictitious," and he deter- 
mined, as an experiment, to institute a regime 
whereby no student under his supervision would 
be excused periodically from mental or physical 
duties, except in cases where some pathological 
condition existed. In summing up the data he 
says : ' ' So far our results show all improvement 
[in the health of students]." 

The second study, which appeared in 1914, was 
by the present writer. She made a prolonged and 
careful experimental study of twenty-three women 
(using as a control the records of men subjects), 
and failed to demonstrate any influence of period- 
icity on those mental abilities which she tested. 
These included speed and accuracy of perception, 
controlled association, steadiness, speed of volun- 
tary movement, fatigability, and rate of learning. 

A great amount of scientific work remains to be 
done before any final answer of any kind can be 
given to the question. Does functional periodicity 
exercise a fundamental and characteristic influ- 



VOCATIONAL APTITUDES OF WOMEN 237 

ence on the intellectual abilities of women? We 
must answer our third question in this way : There 
is very little experimental evidence on which to 
base a reply, but the few data which we do pos- 
sess show no influence, either detrimental or bene- 
ficial. 

Our fourth inquiry is this : Are there any innate 
sex differences in affective or instinctive equip- 
ment that would naturally lead to a vocational dif- 
ferentiation of the sexes ? Here we must acknowl- 
edge ourselves to be entirely without a literature 
of fact. The literature of opinion is very exten- 
sive on the subject, and it would be an interesting 
and no doubt an instructive task to collect and 
summarize the various and conflicting opinions of 
men as to the affective and instinctive differences 
between the sexes. Men and women as we see 
them in the world do differ in affective behavior, 
but no one can say whether these differences in 
behavior are original or acquired. There are dif- 
ferent conventional standards of emotional be- 
havior for men and for women, but no one would 
be justified in saying that such standards arose 
from inherent affective differences between the 
sexes. The very variety that characterizes the 
statements on this subject constitutes proof of the 
ignorance of mankind in regard to it. 



238 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

Since exact data are entirely lacking, the discus- 
sion of this last question need not detain us. We 
may, however, glance at one instinct which has 
repeatedly been stated to characterize women, and 
to constitute in itself a natural justification for 
differentiating the sexes vocationally. This is the 
' ' maternal instinct. ' ' Since the period of helpless 
infancy is very prolonged in the human animal, 
and since the care of infants is an exacting and 
onerous labor, it would be natural for those who 
are not biologically attached to infants, to use all 
means at their disposal to fasten the whole bur- 
den of infant-tending upon those who are orig- 
inally so attached. We should expect this to hap- 
pen, and it does happen. There has been a continu- 
ous social effort to establish as a norm the woman 
whose vocational proclivities are completely and 
''naturally" satisfied by child-bearing and child- 
rearing. 

In the absence of all data, it would seem most 
reasonable to suppose that if it were possible to 
obtain a quantitative measurement of ''maternal 
instinct," we should find this trait distributed 
among women just as we have found all other 
traits distributed, which have yielded to quantita- 
tive measurement. It is most reasonable to as- 
sume that we should obtain a curve of distribution, 



VOCATIONAL APTITUDES OF WOMEN 239 

varying from an extreme where individuals have a 
zero or negative interest in the care of infants, 
through a mode where there is a moderate amount 
of impulse to tend infants, to a second extreme 
where the only vocational interest lies in such ac- 
tivity. The bearing and rearing of children is 
in many respects analogous to the work of sol- 
diers. It is necessary to national existence, it 
means great sacrifice of personal advantage, and 
it involves suffering and danger, and, in a certain 
percentage of cases, the actual loss of life. Thus, 
as in the case of soldiers, every effort is and must 
be made to establish as a norm the extreme end 
of the distribution curve, where there is an all- 
consuming interest in patriotism, in the one case, 
and in motherhood in the other. In the absence 
of all scientific data, we should, therefore, guard 
against accepting as an established fact about hu- 
man nature a doctrine that we might expect to find 
in use as a means of social control. It is also fit- 
ting to raise the question as to just what is meant 
by the term, "maternal instinct." Does it mean 
desire for offspring which are as yet non-existent? 
Does it mean only the tendency to care for help- 
less offspring after they are actually in existence! 
Does it mean an interest in children as such, re- 
gardless of their origin? Or does it consist in a 



240 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

mingling of all these elements 1 Above all, does it 
involve, as an essential element, an interest in 
waiting personally upon infants'? One certainly 
gains the impression from a perusal of the exten- 
sive literature of opinion that to most persons the 
term is quite unanalyzed, and that it calls for 
analysis. 

We have now considered four of our inquiries 
in the light of experimental evidence. We have 
discovered that a great amount of work remains 
to be done before we can answer most of them 
conclusively, and that to one question, at least, no 
answer at all can be given from the literature of 
fact. We can only say that, so far, scientific ex- 
periment has revealed no sex differences in the 
original nature of intellect that would imply a 
necessary differentiation of vocations on the 
ground of sex. There exist no scientific data to 
show (1) differences in average intellect; (2) dif- 
ferences in mental variability; (3) special causes 
of intellectual inefficiency affecting one sex but not 
the other; (4) differences in affective or instinc- 
tive equipment, implying a "natural" division of 
labor. 

The division of labor between the sexes, 
which has existed through historic times and still 
persists, originated, so far as we know, in physio- 



VOCATIONAL APTITUDES OF WOMEN 241 

logical, not in psychological differences. The mo- 
mentous physiological fact that women bear and 
nourish infants and men do not, is the great pri- 
mary sex difference on which our economic and vo- 
cational organization has been built up. It might 
be supposed that natural selection would have 
evolved an intellectual (or unintellectual) type in 
women, which could find its complete natural sat- 
isfaction in the vocation of child-bearing and 
child-rearing. But such a selection could take 
place only if mental traits were sex-limited in in- 
heritance, or existed as secondary sex characteris- 
tics. No mental trait has ever been proved to be 
sex-limited in inheritance, or to exist as a second- 
ary sex character. So far as we know, daughters 
inherit mental traits from fathers as well as from 
mothers, and sons inherit them from mothers as 
well as from fathers. Under such circumstances 
the law of natural selection can never become op- 
erative to solve the vocational problems of women. 
The fact that women have not in the past 
equaled men in "philosophy, science, art, inven- 
tion and management" is frequently adduced as 
evidence of their innate unfitness for pursuits 
other than the domestic. From such evidence, 
however, we glean in reality no information what- 
ever about the vocational aptitudes of women. 



242 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

We should not expect any notable achievement by 
women in the fields mentioned above, for the fol- 
lowing reasons. Women must bear and nourish 
infants, and men cannot. The period of gestation 
and the period of infancy are very protracted in 
the human species, together covering, for each in- 
fant reared, about six years. Until very recently 
no scientific methods of controlling procreation 
have been generally known or utilized. Thus 
women have borne great numbers of infants, all 
their youth and maturity being consumed by bear- 
ing and rearing young. The small minority of 
women whose lives happened not to be so con- 
sumed would be very unlikely to make any contri- 
butions in extra-domestic vocational achievement 
for two reasons. In the first place, all women 
were expected to mate and thus to procreate and 
rear offspring, and no provision was made by so- 
ciety for their training in lines other than those 
they would be expected to use. In the second place, 
those women who did not meet the common fate 
failed to do so for some special reason, such as 
ill health, mental disease, or the necessity of car- 
ing for decrepit relatives. The very causes of 
their celibacy would operate also against any vo- 
cational achievement on their part. 
In the irrational trial and error method by 



VOCATIONAL APTITUDES OF WOMEN 243 

which our human institutions have heen developed, 
the logical expectation would be that the great 
physiological sex difference in reproductive func- 
tion would probably influence vocational activities 
just as it has done. We find in the traditional di- 
vision of labor between the sexes exactly what we 
should expect to find, even though there were an 
identity of intellectual abilities and interests. It 
seems both psychologically and socially desirable 
that the one incontestable conditioning factor in 
the vocational differentiation of men and women 
be raised clearly to consciousness, rather than 
submerged, as in the past, by an elaborate system 
of defense mechanisms and traditional devices of 
social control. It would be going afield from the 
immediate purpose of this chapter to offer con- 
structive suggestions for such changes in economic 
and domestic management as might be necessary 
to overcome this conditioning factor, and thus to 
give free vocational opportunity to both sexes 
alike. To effect these changes in such a way that 
the maximum social betterment may be achieved 
thereby will be a task not simple but complex. It 
will call for the best thought and the most en- 
lightened effort of which we are capable, and will 
be accomplished only with the passing of years 
and decades. 



244 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

The essential thing at present is to know 
whether any basis for future action may now be 
found in the established facts of human nature. 
In the present state of scientific knowledge it 
would be as dogmatic (and therefore as undesir- 
able) to state that significant sex differences in in- 
tellect do not exist, as to state that such differ- 
ences do exist. All we can say is that up to the 
present time experimental psychology has dis- 
closed no sex differences in mental traits which 
would imply a division of labor on psychological 
grounds. The social gain would be very great if 
the public could be brought to recognize intelli- 
gently that to many of the questions regarding the 
vocational aptitudes of women no definite answers 
can at present be given, because the necessary 
data for the formulation of answers have never 
been collected. So far as is at present known, 
women are as competent intellectually as men are, 
to undertake any and all human vocations. 



CHAPTER XI 

THEORY AND PRINCIPLE OF PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTS AS 
APPLIED TO VOCATIONAL ANALYSIS 

The more general questions of the theory of 
tests, their selection, evaluation, and technique of 
application and record, need not be considered 
here. The reader unfamiliar with these matters 
will find them fully treated in the various standard 
manuals of tests, and in numerous special articles 
and monographs referred to in the bibliography 

There are, however, certain particular aspects 
of the theory and use of mental tests which have 
special importance for vocational psychology. 
These are: 

1. The question of the degree to which profi- 
ciency in one respect or ability or test implies pro- 
ficiency in others. 

2. The degree to which these intercorrelations 
are revealed by preliminary trials and modified 
by continued practice. 

3. The question of the significance of prelimi- 
nary trials in revealing the relative abilities of 

individuals as these would be shown after all the 

245 



246 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

individuals had acquired their maximuin skill or 
practice level of proficiency; that is, the relation 
between momentary capacity and ultimate achieve- 
ment. 

Attempts to intercorrelate mental or motor 
abilities as measured by laboratory tests have 
usually produced more or less irregular re- 
sults. Some of the coefficients have been positive, 
some negative, but in only a few cases have many 
of them been large when the individuals tested 
have been chosen at random or with no deliberate 
intention of measuring only the extremes of the 
curve of distribution. Thus in a recent report of 
the correlations of abilities among several hun- 
dred adult individuals it is remarked that a cer- 
tain test for logical memory is ''one of the very 
best tests," partly because of ''its high correla- 
tion with other tests" (an average correlation of 
.29). 

Two reasons are largely responsible for these 
low coefficients. The first is the fact that the 
measures correlated have usually been initial 
trials, or at most averages of a very few trials. 
This means great individual variability and con- 
siderable consequent unreliability of the data. A 
more important factor, perhaps, is the fact that 
these preliminary trials do not necessarily repre- 



PSYCHOLOGY AND ANALYSIS 247 

sent the final capacities of the individuals. They 
are determined by a host of incidental or acciden- 
tal influences and reveal only momentary ability, 
not ultimate capacity. There is every reason for 
expecting to find positive correlation of *' desir- 
able" traits, and we may well expect to find this in- 
creasingly true the more our measures test the 
final limits of capacity in the various tests. In 
other words, the only real correction for unreli- 
able measures is to be made by continuing the test 
until the individual has reached the limit of prac- 
tice in it. 

Only occasional attempts have been made to de- 
termine the influence of practice on the correlation 
of abilities, and those that have been reported 
have been based on so few practice trials that no 
review of them need be given. In the present 
chapter I shall present the results of an experi- 
ment in which a group of observers were repeat- 
edly tested until in each test a practice limit was 
approximated, a limit which, in most cases, one 
hundred further trials failed to improve. The 
results have a real interest for vocational psy- 
chology. 

The experiment consisted in putting each of 
thirteen individuals through 205 repetitions of 
seven different mental tests. The trials were con- 



248 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

trolled as thoroughly as possible with respect to 
such factors as interim occupation, exercise, food, 
rotation of tests, temperature, illumination, and 
incentive and interest. The subjects, four women 
and nine men, ranging from eighteen to thirty- 
nine years in age, were mature, zealous, and faith- 
ful. Competition was stimulated by the award 
of desirable prizes, and each worker received a 
daily wage. Eecords were announced to the sub- ' 
jects only after each thirty-five trials. So far as 
previous practice in these particular tests is con- 
cerned, all the subjects were naive. Five trials 
were made daily, these trials being distributed 
through the day at about two-hour intervals. The 
tests themselves occupied about forty minutes at 
each sitting. 

The tests used were the following familiar lab- 
oratory forms : 

1. Adding. Adding seventeen mentally to each 
of fifty two-place numbers and reciting aloud the 
correct answer. Order of numbers random at each 
trial. Eecord with stop watch, time required for 
perfect score. 

2. Naming Opposites. Correctly naming oppo- 
sites of each of fifty adjectives which occurred 
each time in random order. Record, time required 
for a perfect score. 



PSYCHOLOGY AND ANALYSIS 24i) 

3. Color Naming. The Columbia laboratory 
form of this test, with ten repetitions of each of 
twelve colors. Position of card changed at each 
trial. Record, time required for perfect score. 

4. Discrimination Reaction. Discriminating be- 
tween red and blue, and reacting correctly with 
appropriate hand. Record, average time, in 
sigma, and number of false reactions. 

5. Cancellation. Crossing out digits from the 
Woodworth-Wells form of this test. Record, time 
required for 75 correct cancellations of equally 
difficult digits. 

6. Coordination. The familiar three-hole test, 
for accuracy of aim. Record, time required for 
one hundred correct strokes. 

7. Tapping. Executing four hundred taps at 
maximal speed, with hand stylus, right hand, el- 
bow support. Record, time required. 

Each test has been correlated ^ with all the re- 
maining tests at various points in the curve of 
practice. Correlations were made at each of the 
following points : 

1. Preliminary trial designated 1st trial 

2. Median of first 5 trials designated 5th trial 

3^ Median of trials 20 to 25 designated 25th trial 

4. Median of trials 75 to 80 designated 80th trial 

5. Median of trials 200 to 205 designated 205th trial 

^ For explanation of the technique and meaning of correla- 
tion see the footnote on p. 45. 



^50 



VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 



At eacli of these points the thirteen individuals 
were arranged in an order of relative ability for 
each of the tests, and these orders were correlated 
with each other. Table 23 gives, for each test, 
at each point, the average correlation with all the 
other tests, and also the grand average correla- 
tions of all tests. 



TABLE 23 

Showing the Average Correlation op Each Test with! Ami 
Others, at Various Points in the Curve of Practice 



Trial 


Add- 


Oppo- 


Color 


Discrim- 


Coordi- 


Tap- 


Final 


ing 


sites 


Naming 


ination 


nation 


ping 


Average 


1.... 


.19 


.10 


.15 


— .07 


—.15 


.17 


.065] ' 


5.... 


.41 


.26 


.15 


.35 


.21 


.32 


.280 


25.... 


.50 


.35 


.43 


.27 


.03 


.35 


.320 


80.... 


.55 


.43 


.53 


.31 


.18 


.34 


.390 


205.... 


.48 


.62 


.61 


.35 


.34 


.52 


.490 



Except in the case of discrimination the effect 
of practice is to increase to a marked degree the 
intercorrelations of the various tests. Adding in- 
creases steadily up to the eightieth trial. Oppo- 
sites and color naming gain even more steadily tO' 
the very end of the experiment, the increase in the 
coefficients being four to six fold. Tapping in- 
creases more slowly but no less certainly. In co- 
ordination the increase is very irregular, but the 
coefficients show, on the whole, a change from — .15 



PSYCHOLOGY AND ANALYSIS 251 

at the first trial to .34 at the finish. Only in the 
case of discrimination is there failure to increase 
after the fifth trial. In no case, after the prelimi- 
nary trial, is there a negative coefficient among 
the average correlations, and indeed in only one 
case is there a coefficient smaller than .15. The 
final averages show steady increase from .065 at 
the preliminary to .28 at the fifth, .32 at the twen- 
ty-fifth, .39 at the eightieth, and .49 at the two- 
hundred-and-fifth trials. With practice, then, the 
average correlations of all tests become positive, 
and the coefficients become greater the longer the 
practice is continued. 

In producing this increase in the intercorrela- 
tion of specific abilities through the medium of 
practice, at least three different factors probably 
cooperate. These factors have not an equal sig- 
nificance for vocational psychology and its inter- 
ests in tests. 

One of the least important of these factors is 
the variability of individual performance. In the 
beginning of the experiment each individual is 
more variable than at later points in the curve. 
This momentary variability need not be supposed 
to affect all the tests in the same way nor all in- 
dividuals in the same direction. This fact may 
then tend somewhat to reduce the correlation of 



252 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

the preliminary trials and may in some cases ma- 
terially affect the first five or ten trials. Beyond 
the twenty-fifth trial the variability in these tests 
is much reduced, and particularly so in the meas- 
ures here used, which are in all cases, after the 
preliminary trial, the medians of five successive 
trials. 

Another factor that deserves mention is the pos- 
sibility of change in the character of the tests 
themselves, through practice with them. It is 
quite probable, for example, that the opposites 
test comes, after many repetitions, to resemble 
more and more that type of process or function 
involved in color-naming. The responses become 
more and more intimately associated with the 
stimulus words, the suggested responses to each 
word become more and more limited in number 
and in most cases reduced to a single word for 
each stimulus. This state of affairs is true of 
color-naming at the very beginning of the experi- 
ment. As the order of the stimulus words is 
changed at each trial, the test may come to involve 
more and more the simple task of giving merely 
the quickest possible association of the right re- 
sponse, and the overcoming of inhibitions and in- 
terferences of a more or less general sort, with 
less and less emphasis on the element of selection. 



PSYCHOLOGY AND ANALYSIS 253 

Mucli the same may also be true of the addition 
test. It is in these three tests that the increase in 
correlation is most marked, and the actual co- 
efficients highest at the end of the experiment. 
Careful analysis of what takes place as one im- 
proves in these simple tests would no doubt yield 
interesting" material. 

But these two factors — decrease in variability 
and change in the character of the tests — seem to 
be far from sufficient to account for the results. 
The tapping test remains much the same type of 
process throughout, the only apparent modifica- 
tions consisting of slight changes in method and 
perhaps some gradual changes in the muscles. 
There is certainly no reason for suspecting that 
tapping and opposites or tapping and discrimi- 
nation become, as tests, more alike because of fre- 
quent repetition. But the increase in correlation 
is clear in both these cases. Again, it is well estab- 
lished that the discrimination reaction, in the form 
here used, also tends to become reflex through 
practice, the conscious discrimination coming 
only after the correct reaction is made. These ex- 
periments called for between 3,075 and 4,100 single 
discrimination reactions on the part of each ob- 
server, which would afford ample time for such 
a change to show itself. Mere change in the char- 



254. VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

acter of the test would then lead us to expect color- 
naming, opposites, and adding to come more and 
more to resemble discrimination reaction. But 
they do not, if the coefficients may be taken as evi- 
dence. The coefficients of these tests with discrim- 
ination show no tendency to increase, even by the 
end of the experiment. The assumption of in- 
creasing similarity in the character of these pairs 
of tests would seem gratuitous. Moreover, if there 
were such increase in similarity, and this be also 
supposed to account for the higher correlation of 
color-naming and opposites with adding, coordina- 
tion and adding should show the same increase in 
correlation. Just the reverse is actually the case, 
the correlation of coordination and adding de- 
creasing consistently. 

Some further factor must then be responsible 
for the general increase in correlation, aside from 
decrease in variabiUty (which affects only the 
first few trials) and progressive qualitative ap- 
proximation of the tests (which is seen to be in- 
adequate). The doctrine of "general ability" or 
''general intelligence" at once suggests itself in 
, this connection. If there is such a thing as ' * gen- 
eral ability" or "general intelligence," we should 
expect all samplings of that ability to correlate 
more and more as the measures came to be truer 



PSYCHOLOGY AND ANALYSIS 255 

samples. We might indeed expect to find evi- 
dences of this general ability only when measur- 
ing the ''ultimate capacity" of the individuals 
concerned. The momentary ability revealed in 
initial trials, or even in the first half-dozen trials, 
in a given set of tests might well be expected to 
show only low degrees of correlation. These 
trials would not be measures of ultimate capacity, 
but would be largely determined by previous prac- 
tice, chance variability, momentary attitude and 
initial method of attack. They would, in short, be 
samplings only of momentary ability, not of final 
capacity. 

Or if the assumption of a common factor be re- 
jected, the present evidence tends strongly to sup- 
port our earlier conclusion concerning the posi- 
tive correlation between desirable mental func- 
tions. Some form of the doctrine of "general 
ability," at any rate, seems to be supported. But 
the conclusion seems to call for the qualification 
that ''general ability" shall have reference to final 
capacity rather than to momentary performance, 
if the correlations are to be high. If each indi- 
vidual be given the opportunity to attain his limit 
of efficiency, his highest level of performance, 
then, when these final limits are reached, indi- 
viduals who excel their fellows in one type 



S56 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

of work will also tend to excel in other types of 
work. 

The theory and practice of tests has in the past 
been too content to rest its claims on the meager 
results of a few preliminary samplings of an in- 
dividual's ability. The fact that, even when a 
great variety of such samplings of a given indi- 
vidual are aggregated and balanced off against 
one another, few results of real diagnostic value 
are achieved should be sufficient warning against 
this tendency. My conviction is that for this pur- 
pose we shall find it necessary to determine the in- 
dividual 's *' limit of practice" in the various tests 
before we shall secure diagnostic results which 
will be verified by the individual's subsequent 
achievement in daily life. We should know much 
more than we now know concerning the tendency 
and meaning of such correlations as show close 
relation between initial performance and ultimate 
capacity. This is particularly true if we wish to 
extend the method of tests beyond educational di- 
agnosis and to use them as a means of vocational 
guidance or of industrial selection. For educa- 
tional diagnosis we wish primarily to know what 
kind of practice the individual most needs. For 
vocational and industrial purposes we need rather 
to know what limits the individual can eventually 



PSYCHOLOGY AND ANALYSIS 257 

reach, in given kinds of performance, as the result 
of practice, and to what degree his present equip- 
ment of incentive renders probable the actual 
achievement of this limit. 

On the question of the significance of prelimi- 
nary trials and the effects of practice on the rela- 
tive standing of individuals in their group, there 
are important facts to be considered. In the di- 
rect application of mental tests it has too often 
been assumed that the actual performance of an 
individual, in one or a dozen trials at a given task, 
is in some way or other significant of that indi- 
vidual's final capacity in such work. It is true 
that several investigators have studied the ef- 
fects of practice on individual differences. These 
workers were interested above all in questions as 
to relative rate of improvement, or amount or per- 
manence of gain. Such studies have produced 
suggestive results, although they have been based, 
for the most part, on records of only a few sub- 
jects or on relatively few practice trials. 

To what degree are individual differences after 
a given number of trials indicative of the final 
maximum capacity of the individuals concerned? 
At what various rates do the determining factors 
enter into the practice curves of a group of work- 
ers? What manner and amount of displacement 



258 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

in their relative order of ability are thus pro- 
duced? At what point or points in the curves do 
the individuals assume their final order of rela- 
tive capacity after training? How do the replies 
to these questions vary with the character of the 
task? 

In the case of the experiments already de- 
scribed, record has been here taken of the follow- 
ing points in the curves of practice: 

Preliminary trial called initial trial 

Median of trials 1 to 5 called 5th trial 

Median of trials 20 to 25 caUed 25th trial 

Median of trials 46 to 50 called 50th trial 

Median of trials 76 to 80 called 80th trial 

Median of trials 126 to 130 called 130th trial 

Median of trials 171 to 175 called 175th trial 

At each of these points the thirteen subjects 
were arranged in order of relative ability for the 
test at the given stage of practice. Each of these 
orders, or cross sections, of the group of practice 
curves was then correlated with the final order of 
position as shown in trials one hundred and sev- 
enty to one hundred and seventy-five. Table 24 
gives the coefficients of correlation derived in this 
way. A careful study of this table will prove in- 
structive. 

It is at once evident that the preliminary trial 
is by no means always a measure of the final rela- 
tive capacities of the individuals tested. The av- 



PSYCHOLOGY AND ANALYSIS 



259 



TABLE 24 

Showing the Correlation of Ultimate Capacity with Capacity 

AT Different Points in the Curve of Learning 

(See Text for Explanation) 



The Test 


Prelim- 
inary 


5th 
Trial 


25th 
Trial 


50th 
Trial 


80th 
Trial 


130th 
Trial 


Final 
Trial 
175th 


Adding 

Opposites .... 
Color Naming 
Discrimination 
Cancellation. . 
Codrdination 
Tapping 


— 


IS 
08 
68 
68 
67 
52 
23 




19 
62 
89 
62 
68 
79 
48 




87 
49 
86 
60 
88 
77 
63 


.87 
.83 
.91 
.50 
.69 
.90 
.68 


.97 
.94 
.97 
.50 
.93 
.95 
.69 


.96 
.98 
.97 
.79 
(1.00) 
(1.00) 
.89 


1.00 
1.00 
1.00 
1.00 

i'.bb 


Averages. . . 


.41 


.61 


.73 


.77 


.85 


.92 


1.00 



erage of all seven coefficients increases from .41 
at tlie preliminary trial to .92 at the one hundred 
and thirtieth trial. As the trials proceed then, 
the relative positions of the thirteen individuals 
become more and more definitely fixed, but in the 
beginning the indication is obscure. The rate 
of this process, however, varies with the test, and 
to a considerable degree. Adding shows changes 
in position which effect a correlation of .87 only 
after the twenty-fifth trial. Beyond this point 
there is little change, the eightieth and one hun- 
dred and thirtieth trials correlating equally well, 
and practically perfectly, with the final order. 
After twenty-five trials, then, the final capacities 
of the individuals in the adding test may be said 
to be indicated fairly accurately. Opposites, in 



260 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

the fiftieth trial, yields a coefficient equal to that 
of addition in the twenty-fifth trial, and by the 
eightieth trial the correlation may be said to be 
complete. Only after fifty trials, then, can the 
test be said to yield comparative measures which 
reflect the individual's final capacity in this form 
of controlled association. In the case of tapping 
it is only at the one hundred and thirtieth trial 
that the correlation with final position exceeds .69. 
These results may be easily comprehended by 
thinking of each test (as for instance the tapping 
test) as a prolonged race, consisting of a large 
number of heats (205 separate trials). All indi- 
viduals begin with a running start, their respec- 
tive initial speeds depending on the momentum 
they have acquired through a certain amount of 
previous practice, and on such momentary ability 
and zeal as they possess at the time. But as the 
succeeding ''heats" or trials occur some individ- 
uals who were originally in the lead begin id lose 
ground in relation to others who, though initially 
slower, are now speeding up and overtaking the 
leaders. Still others may retain their original rel- 
ative positions to the end of the race. In the table 
of coefficients, a correlation of 1.00 indicates that 
at that point the ultimate relative positions of the 
contestants have at last become established. The 



PSYCHOLOGY AND ANALYSIS 261 

nearer the figure approaches zero the more uncer- 
tain are the relative positions at the particular 
trial. To terminate the race at a point where the 
correlation is low and to reward the contestants 
according to the position they had reached at that 
point would he manifestly unfair to those who 
were still speeding up and partial to those who 
were losing ground. 

Color-naming, discrimination, cancellation, and 
coordination show up to much greater advantage. 
Even the preliminary trials in these tests show 
fairly high correlations with the final orders. The 
first two of these show little change as practice 
proceeds. In the case of the latter two tests, al- 
though the initial correlations are fairly high, 
there is nevertheless considerable increase as the 
trials proceed. 

The meaning of these results seems to be that 
before one attempts to interpret individual dif- 
ferences as disclosed by performance in such a 
series of simple tests, he should have clearly in 
mind the distinction between temporary profi- 
ciency and ultimate capacity. If he is interested, 
for example, in determining the vocational pros- 
pects of a youth, or the relative merits of candi- 
dates or culprits, it is important that he realize 
that ralative abilities in many of these laboratory 



262 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY^ 

tests may be changed quite beyond recognition 
by continued work. It is highly desirable to know 
more than we now know concerning the degree to 
which initial and intermediate trials in these tests 
reflect final capacity. In the past the question 
seems hardly to have been asked. Individual dif- 
ferences in early trials, in some tests, are fairly 
significant of the working level to which the per- 
former may be brought later. In other tests this 
is not the case. On the significance of these early 
trials may depend, in many cases, the vocational 
value of the particular test. 

Changes in the nature of the tests, variations 
of methods of attack, and specific improvement in 
the directness, independence and rapidity of the 
special nervous connections concerned — these 
three factors would all declare themselves in the 
form of ''changes in ability." A useful piece of 
work in the case of all tests will be the analysis 
of the nature of the changes resulting from prac- 
tice. But in any case the presence of these changes 
in correlation shows that we are not, in early 
trials, measuring the same tendency or capacity in 
all performers. The concrete tasks of daily life 
doubtless show just such qualitative changes, dur- 
ing practice, as we may suppose to be present in 
some of these tests. Just as it is ultimate capacity 



PSYCHOLOGY AND ANALYSIS 263 

in daily life that is, with a given set of incen- 
tives, most important, so in the laboratory the 
measurement of ''ability after practice" ought to 
be more emphasized than it is at present. 

If it is true that with practice all tests corre- 
late with one another, so that an individual who 
is good in one type of work is also, when his prac- 
tice level has been reached, good in other types of 
work, the task of vocational psychology is at once 
enormously simplified. In place of further search 
for special occupational tests adapted in some 
peculiar way to particular types of work, our task 
is rather that of extending the general intelligence 
scales until they represent higher and higher de- 
grees of general ability. 

It is quite probable that further advance in this 
direction will come, not from the elaboration or 
invention of more tests, but by the selection of a 
very few tests, and the examination of the final 
limits of practice with respect to them. The prob- 
lem will then be the selection of sets of tests in 
which initial performance shows high correlation 
with ultimate capacity in the tests themselves, or 
else the laborious and undramatic, but perhaps 
preferable, alternative of continuing every test 
until the practice limit is reached by the individ- 
ual. In the latter case it would be well to learn 



26'^ VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

more about the nature and range of these limits 
than we know at present. 

In so far as particular tasks are actually found 
to call for highly specialized aptitudes, for the 
detection of which tests are sought, there will be 
the further problem of correlating these various 
tests with the particular aptnesses or fitnesses to- 
ward the detection of which diagnosis is directed. 

There will also be the problem of the alignment 
of the various types of work along the general 
intelligence scales, as rapidly as these are ex- 
tended and elaborated. In so far as this method 
is followed, the task of selecting from candidates 
those best fitted for the accomplishment of spe- 
cial types of work wiU be easily handled. Voca- 
tional selection will readily find methods suited 
to its purposes. But vocational guidance, as dis- 
tinguished from vocational selection, must for 
some time to come depend largely on the determi- 
nation of interests, incentives, satisfactions, emo- 
tional values and preferences, and the discovery 
and direction of these through general channels 
of information and through the methods of indus- 
trial and pre-vocational education. 

This is a hard and an arduous program. It calls 
for strenuous work on the part of investigators, 
patience and faithfulness on the part of observers, 



PSYCHOLOGY AND ANALYSIS 265 

and wide cooperation of investigators with each 
other. From the immediately practical point of 
view it also offers an inviting opportunity to those 
foundations and individuals who are interested in 
supporting the further development of ''the arts 
of social control over human nature." 



CHAPTER XII 

CONCLUSION 

The leading problems of vocational psychology 
we have seen to be three in number: First, how 
may the individual achieve the most adequate 
knowledge of his own peculiar mental and instinc- 
tive constitution, his equipment of capacities, ten- 
dencies, interests and aptitudes, and the ways in 
which he compares, in these respects, with his fel- 
lows? Second, how may the individual acquire 
information concerning the general or special 
traits required for successful participation in the 
various vocations, in order to select a line of activ- 
ity for which he is constitutionally adapted? 
Third, how may the employer determine the rela- 
tive desirability, fitness and promise of those who 
may offer themselves as his associates and assist- 
ants, or for minor positions in his employ? Obvi- 
ously, if vocational psychology were in its matur- 
ity, rather than m its infancy, these various ques- 
tions would resolve themselves into a single prob- 
lem. The traits required in the various types of 

work would be fully known and specified, so that 

266 



CONCLUSION 267 

both the choice of the individual and the selection 
by the employer would proceed directly, once the 
individual's characteristics were known. 

From this goal we are very far, but by no means 
hopelessly, removed. As we have seen in the pre- 
ceding chapters, the line of attack is being ad- 
vanced very unevenly at its various points. It is 
indeed characteristic of any new branch of science 
that it does not advance symmetrically and at a 
uniform rate, but moves ahead, now in this di- 
rection, now in that, so that the line of complete 
development is some distance behind the outposts 
of exploration. So in the case of vocational psy- 
chology we may draw a rough line which shall rep- 
resent the main region of advance, and may indi- 
cate the various points where the line lags behind 
or goes conspicuously forward. 

The main line of advance has left far behind it 
the magical ritual of primitive thought, the me- 
dieval search for significant omens and clairvoy- 
ant signs, the pseudo-scientific faith in the struc- 
tural characteristics elaborated in physiognomy 
and phrenology, and has taken its stand firmly 
at the point where emphasis is laid on the objec- 
tive study of the individual's behavior. Educa- 
tionally this position sJiows itself in the abandon- 
ment of the purely disciplinary ideal of abstract 



268 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

training, and the substitution of training in spe- 
cific forms of conduct, exercise, and occupation, 
accompanied by concrete experience with indus- 
trial opportunities, rewards, and satisfactions. 
From the more strictly psychological point of 
view the position shows itself in the experimental 
application of mental tests. In the measurement 
of the more strictly intellectual capacities, the line 
has shown a very decided advance since the begin- 
ning of the present century. The available intel- 
ligence scales make possible the diagnosis of in- 
tellectual defect, normality or precocity in units of 
considerable reliability, in the case of pre-ado- 
lescents. This step in itself is sufficient to put 
educational, industrial and social enterprise 
deeply in debt to the new science of experimental 
psychology. 

But this by no means constitutes the only point 
of marked advance. Thanks to the elaboration of 
more complex and more diversified tests, and the 
gradual accumulation of norms, it is now possible 
to make mental measurements in the case of indi- 
viduals considerably beyond the age of adoles- 
cence. By means of such methods, degrees of sen- 
sitivity, dexterity, accuracy, speed, comprehen- 
sion, docility, discrimination, ingenuity, informa- 
tion, observation, and numerous other general as- 



eONCLUSION 269 

pects of mental alertness may be recognized. 
Comparison of such measures, in the case of adult 
workers with actual success in the field of their 
activity, tends constantly to show high degrees of 
positive correlation. The fact that the correla- 
tions are not perfect raises numerous problems, 
the solution of which is now being attempted. 

The evidence now at hand suggests that the in- 
complete correlation comes, in part at least, from 
the fact that some of the tests of momentary 
achievement do not fully represent the ultimate 
capacities of the individuals measured. At this 
point the line is relatively slow in advancing. The 
obstacles encountered consist partly in our incom- 
plete information concerning which of the tests 
at once reveal final capacity and which do not. 
This information must necessarily come slowly 
because of the difficulties involved in securing the 
cooperation of subjects who will submit to the pro- 
longed series of measurements which such inves- 
tigations involve. Such data as are available, 
while inadequate to constitute proof, suggest very 
strongly that those tests which are now in most 
common use correlate closely with each other when 
the limit of practice is reached in all of them. If 
subsequent work confirms this suggestion, the de- 
termination of the factor of general intelligence 



270 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

may proceed on either of two bases. Either we 
may use a very few trials of tests in which such 
trials may be found to indicate ultimate capacity, 
or we may use a small number of tests, but con- 
tinue the measures until the limits of practice are 
reached. 

But there is probably another factor in part re- 
sponsible for the incompleteness of the correla- 
tions between test records and direct measures of 
vocational success. This is the fact that charac- 
teristics other than general intelligence play a 
conspicuous part in daily life. The interests, the 
incentives, the emotions, and the equipment of in- 
stinct and habit, which show themselves in such 
traits as curiosity, competition, honesty, loyalty, 
promptness, patience, the play impulse, etc., do 
not count for nothing in vocational activity. 
Moreover, it is quite likely that, in addition to 
the common fund of intelligence, each individual 
possesses in his or her own degree, certain more 
specialized capacities and aptitudes, for the com- 
plete measurement of which the available tests are 
inadequate. The graded '^ product scales," how- 
ever, represent a definite step toward the meas- 
urement of many of these specific capacities. 

Another difficulty encountered at this point is 
the fact that such direct measures of vocational 



CONCLUSION 271 

success as liave been utilized in these comparisons 
are in themselves subject to very large error. 
Only in recent years, and as a result of the em- 
phasis of the human factor in industry, has it 
come to be the common practice to secure ade- 
quate records of the work of the individual as con- 
trasted with the work of the gang. Even today 
such records are available in accurate form for 
only the simpler operations, in which standardized 
conditions of work can be maintained. The rela- 
tive success of salesmen, for example, is not fairly 
measured in terms of the amounts of their sales, 
the number of prospects interviewed, or the fre- 
quency with which the assigned tasks are accom- 
plished, unless the local trade conditions of the 
respective territories are fully taken into account. 
Inasmuch as such errors of measurement tend to 
reduce the apparent correlation between the traits 
measured, it is extremely probable that the psy- 
chological tests are even more significant than 
their present results indicate. Refinement of the 
tests must be accompanied by more accurate and 
precise measurement of the actual working effi- 
ciency of individuals in the industrial field, if the 
results of the one are ever to represent the amount 
of the other. In this as in many other respects, 
the development of vocational tests depends as 



g72 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

mucli upon the active and intelligent cooperation 
of industrial concerns as it does upon tlie enthu- 
siasm and diligence of the psychological investi- 
gators. 

From the point of view of the employer, the 
incompleteness of the correlation between tests 
and direct measures is of little concern. Even a 
very small positive correlation affords him a de- 
gree of guidance in the selection of his workers 
that was far from forthcoming under the haphaz- 
ard methods of employment that have been tradi- 
tional. But from the point of view of the indi- 
vidual who is seeking guidance, or who is accepted 
or rejected on the basis of his performance in psy- 
chological tests, any correlation which is imper- 
fect may lead to occasional injustice and misdirec- 
tion. 

The diagnosis of the instinctive and attitudinal 
characteristics and the recognition of the more 
specialized aptitudes constitute two points at 
which the line of advance is relatively slow. It is 
at these points that the psychographic methods 
find their task. As we have already seen in de- 
tail, the methods of the individual and the voca- 
tional psychograph are still lq the stage of empir- 
ical procedure. In this stage of their develop- 
ment nearly any effort to amplify or apply them 



CONCLUSION 273 

is certain to contribute results of positive value. 
The recent studies that have contributed most no- 
tably toward the further development of the psy- 
chographic technique have been in the form of the 
specialized vocational tests and methods. Such 
studies, in addition to yielding results of imme- 
diate applicability in the description and analysis 
of the special tasks at which they are directed, 
also constitute positive progress towards the more 
elaborate psychographic pictures of individuals 
and of tasks. 

Meanwhile groups of further problems have 
been definitely organized, and preliminary steps 
taken toward their solution. The formulation of 
systematic guides to self -analysis and introspec- 
tion and the study of the reliability to be placed 
in the individual's estimates of his own character- 
istics are making definite and interesting prog- 
ress. The examination of the time-honored *'reo- 
ommendation" and the estimates of associates 
and friends, and the investigation of the accuracy 
of such judgments as are based on these testimo- 
nials, on letters of application, on the school rec- 
ords, etc., have already thrown long-desired illu- 
mination on several aspects of vocational psy- 
chology. The effort to base the vocational en- 
deavors of women on the data of exact inquiry, 



27^ VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

rather than on the maintenance of primitive ta- 
boos and domestic and literary traditions, has 
played its own valuable part in one of the most 
vital economic adjustments of our age. 

The very fact that a systematic presentation of 
the problems and methods of vocational psychol- 
ogy is possible signifies an enormous advance be- 
yond the very recent stage in which all vocations 
were mysteries, all choices a serious form of gam- 
bling, and all employment confessedly a matter 
of impressionistic prejudice. To those who be- 
come familiar not only with the program of this 
new branch of applied science, but as well with 
the outstanding definite and positive contribu- 
tions which that program has already yielded, the 
words of a constructive pioneer in this branch of 
scientific inquiry seem to be already becoming 
a statement of fact, rather than the mere expres- 
sion of a hope. "The nineteenth century wit- 
nessed an extraordinary increase in our knowl- 
edge of the material world, and in our power to 
make it subservient to our ends; the twentieth 
century will probably witness a corresponding in- 
crease in our knowledge of human nature, and 
in our power to use it for our welfare." 



APPENDIX 

CLASSIFIED BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR VOCATIONAL 
PSYCHOLOGY 

1. Motives of Vocational Psychology 

Bloomfield, M. : The Vocational Guidance of Youth 

Readings in Vocational Guidance 

Davis, J. B. : Moral and Vocational Guidance 
Hollingworth, H. L. : Vocational Psychology 
Miinsterberg, H. : Psychology and Industrial Efficiency 
Parsons, F. : Choosing a Vocation 
Puffer, J. A. : Vocational Guidance 
Thomdike, E. L. : ** Educational Diagnosis," Science, 
Jan. 24 1913 

2. The Methods of Industrial Education 

Bonser, F. G. : Fundamental Values in Industrial Edu- 
cation 
Bonser and Russell: Industrial Education 
Hanus, P. : Beginnings in Industrial Education 
Righter and Leonard: Educational Surveys and Voca- 
tional Guidance 
[Weeks, R. M.: The People's School; a Study in Voca- 
tional Training 

3. PSEUDO-PSYCHOLOGICAL METHODS 

Those interested in the historical features of vocational 
psychology vnll find innumerable books and monographs 

275 



27G VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

on magic, clairvoyance, astrology, chiromancy, palmis- 
try, phrenology, physiognomies, character-analysis, etc. 
All of these have only historical interest. See also an 
interesting survey of the development and motives of 
these systems, by Prof. Joseph Jastrow, in Popular Sci- 
ence Monthly, June, 1915 

4. History op Psychological Tests 

Cattail and Farrand: "Physical and Mental Measure- 
ments of the Students of Columbia University," 
Psychological Review, Nov., 1896 
Stem, W. : Die Differentielle Psychologic 

The Psychological Methods of Testing Intelligence 

Thorndike, E. L. : Educational Psychology, Vol. Ill 
Whipple, G. M. : Manual of Mental and Physical Tests 
Whitley, M. T, : Tests for Individual Differences 
Wissler, C. : "Correlation of Mental and Physical 
Tests," Psychological Review Monograph Supple- 
ment, No. 16, 1901 

5. Graded Intelligence Tests and Product Scales 

Binet and Simon : A Method of Measuring the Develop- 
ment of Intelligence of Young Children 

Hillegas, M, B, : " Scale for Measurement of Quality in 
English Composition by Young Yeople," Teachers 
College Record, Sept., 1912 

Pyle, W, H. : The Examination of School Children 

Sylvester, R. H. : "The Form Board," Psychological 
Review Monograph Supplement, No. 65, 1913 

"Thorndike, E. L.: "Handwriting," Teachers College 
Record, March, 1910 



APPENDIX 277 

Thorndike, E. L. : " Measurement of Achievement in 
Drawing," Teachers College Becord, Nov., 1913 

Trabue, M. R. : A Graded Series of Completion Tests, 
School and Society, April 10, 1915 

"Completion-test Language Scales." Contribution 

to Education, Teachers College, Columbia Uni- 
versity, No. 77, 1916 

Whipple, G. M. : Manual of Mental and Physical Tests 

Yerkes and Bridges: Point Scale for Measurement of 
Intelligence 

6. The Individual PsYCHoaBAPH 

HoUingworth, H, L. : "Review of Toulouse," Psycho- 
logical Bulletin, Nov., 1912 
Stern, W. : Die Differentielle Psychologic 
Toulouse, E. : Henri Poincare 

7. The Vocational Pstchogbaph 

Miinsterberg, H. : Vocation and Learning 

Parsons, P. : Choosing a Vocation 

Schneider, H. : "Selecting Young Men for Particular 
Jobs," Bulletin 7, National Association of Cor- 
poration Schools 

Seashore, C. E.: "The Measurement of a Singer," Sci- 
ence, Feb. 9, 1912 

Seashore, C. E. : Psychology in Daily Life 

Trade Educational League Bulletins, Boston 

8. Specialized Vocational Tests and Methods 

Ayres, L. : "Psychological Tests in Vocational Guid- 
ance," Journal of Educational Psychology, April, 
1913 



278 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

HoUingwortli, H. L. : " Specialized Vocational Tests and 
Methods, ' ' School and Society, June 26, 1915 

Lahy, J. M. : "Les conditions psychophysiologiques do 
Taptitude au travail dactylographique," Journal de 
Physiology, 1913 

Lough, W. H. : "Experimental Psychology and Voca- 
tional Guidance," Proceedings Second Conference 
on Vocational Education 

MeComas, H. C: ''Some Tests for Efficiency of Tele- 
phone Operators," Journal of Philosophy, Psy- 
chology and Scientific Methods 

Miinsterberg, H. : Psychology and Industrial Efficiency 

Business Psychology 

Scott, W. D. : ''The Scientific Selection of Salesmen," 
Advertising and Selling, October, 1915 

Taylor, P. A.: Scientific Management 

Woolley and Fischer: "Mental and Physical Measure- 
ments of Working Children, ' ' Psychological Review 
Monthly Supplement, No. 77 



9. Self-Analysis of the Individual 

Cattell, J. McK. : "Homo Scientificus Americanus," 

Science, XVII 
Davenport, C. B. : "The Trait Book," Eugenics Record 

Office 
Partridge, S. E. : An Outline for Individual Study 
Parsons, F. : Choosing a Vocation 
Thorndike, E. L. : The Original Nature of Man 
"Professor Cattell's Relation to the Study of In- 
dividual Differences. ' ' In Psychological Researches 
of J. McKeen Cattell, Archives of Psychology, 30 



APPENDIX 2T9 

Wells, F. L. : "The Systematic Observation of the Per- 
sonality," Psychological Review, July, 1914 
Yerkes and LaRue: Outline for a Study of the Self 



10. The Judgment of Associates 

Cattell, J. McK. : ' ' Homo Scientifieus Amerieanus, ' ' Sci- 
ence, XVII 

Cogan, Lucy G., Conklin, Agnes M., and Hollingworth, 
H. L. : *' Self -Analysis, Estimates of Associates, 
and Psychological Tests," School and Society, Vol. 
II, 1915 

Norsworthy, N. : *'0n the Validity of Judgments of 
Character, ' ' Essays in Honor of William James 

Simpson, B. R. : "Reliability of Estimates of General 
Intelligence, with Applications to Appointments to 
Positions," Journal of Educational Psychology, 
April, 1915 

11. The School Cuerioultjm: as a Vocational Test 

Dearborn, W. F. : "The Relative Standing of Pupils in 
the High School and in the University," Bull. 312, 
Univ. of "Wisconsin, 1909 

Jones, A. L. : "The Value of CoUege Entrance Exami- 
nations," Educational Review, Sept., 1914 

Kelley, T. L. : Educational Guidance 

Lowell, A. L. : "College Studies and the Professional 
School," Harvard Graduates' Magazine, Dec, 1910; 
Educational Review, Oct., 1911 

Miles, W. R. : "Comparison of Elementary and High 
School Grades," Iowa Studies in Education, I, 1, 



280 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

Nicholson, F. "W. : ''Success in College and in After 
Life," School and Society, Aug. 14, 1915 

Smith, F. O. : "A Rational Basis for Determining Fit- 
ness for College Entrance," University of Iowa 
Studies in Education, N. S., 51, Dec, 1912 

Thorndike, E. L. : "Educational Diagnosis," Science, 
Jan. 24, 1913 

"The Future of the College Entrance Examination 

Board," Educational Review, May, 1906. Also 
Science, Vol. 23, p. 289 

• "The Permanence of Interests and Their Relation 

to Abilities," Popular Science Monthly, Nov., 1912 



12. The Determinants of Vocational Aptitude^ and a?HE 
Vocational Aptitudes op Women 



Castle, Cora Sutton: "A Statistical Study of Eminent 
"Women," Archives of Psychology, No. 27, August, 
1913 

HoUingworth, Leta S. : "An Economic Study of Feeble- 
minded Women, ' ' Medical Record, June 6, 1914 

Functional Periodicity, Teachers College Studies, 

No. 69, 1914 

^"Variability as Related to Sex Differences in 

Achievement," American Journal of Sociology, 
Jan., 1914 

Jastrow, J.: Character and Temperament 

Montague, Helen, and HoUingworth, L. S. : "The Com- 
parative Variability of the Sexes at Birth," Ameri- 
can Journal of Sociology, Oct., 1914 

Miinsterberg, H. : Vocation and Learning 

Psychology and Industrial Efficiency 



APPENDIX S81 

Pearson, K.: ''Variation in Man and Woman," in 
''Chances of Death," 1897 

Schneider, H. : "Selecting Young Men for Particular 
Jobs," Bulletin 7, National Association of Corpora- 
tion Schools 

"The Problem of Selecting the Right Job," Na- 
tional Association of Corporation Schools, Bulletin 
June 9, 1915 

Thompson, Helen B. : The Mental Traits of Sex 

Thorndike, E. L. : Educational Psychology, Part III, 
1914 

Wells, F. L. : "The Principle of Mental Tests, ' ' Science, 
Aug. 22, 1913 

WooUey, Helen: "Sex Differences in Mental Traits," 
Psychological Bulletin, Oct., 1914 



13. Theory and Principle of Mental Tests as Applied 
IN Vocational Analysis 

Brown, W. : Habit Interference, University of Califor- 
nia Fuhlication in Psychology, I, 4 

HoUingworth, H. L. : "Correlation of Abilities as Af- 
fected by Practice," Journal of Educational Psy- 
chology, Jan., 1912 

"Individual Differences Before, During and After 

Practice," Psychological Review, Jan., 1914 

Stem, W. : Die Differentielle Psychologic 

Thorndike, E. L. : "Educational Diagnosis," Science, 
Jan. 24, 1913 

Mental and Social Measurements 

Wells, F. L. : " The Principle of Mental Tests, ' ' Science, 
Aug. 22, 1913 



282 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

Wells, F. L.: "Systematic Observation of the Person- 
ality," Psychological Review, July, 1914 
Whipple, G. M. : Manual of Mental and Physical Tests 
Whitley, M. T. : Tests for Individual Differences 



!■■ 



TESTS, BLANKS, STANDARDS, FORMS 

EARLY COLUMBIA TESTS 

Laboratory of Psychology of Columbia Universitt 
Physical and Mental Tests 

On the back of this sheet will be found the record of 
the student to whom it is sent, together with the results 
obtained with about 250 college freshmen. The indi- 
vidual student may thus see how certain of his physical 
and mental traits compare with those of other students. 
Some of the records are given in percentages: Thus, 
in the case of eyesight, if the student has a record of 44 
cm. or under he is among the third or fourth having the 
worst eyesight and should consult an oculist. Others 
of the records are given in averages, and the student can 
readily see whether he is above or below the average. 
After the average is given a number in parenthesis which 
Is the probable error. If the record of an individual 
departs from the average by less than this quantity he 
belongs to the half of the students who are medium or 
normal. Thus in the case of the reaction-time, if a stu- 
dent has a time more than 0.019 sec. below 0.159 sec. he 
is among the quarter of the students who are the 
quickest. 

In several of the tests, especially sensation-areas, force 
of movement, perception of pitch, of size and of time, 
and memory for size, the number of trials is not sufficient 
to establish certainly the place of the student among the 
others. 

283 



284. VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

Tests such as these are of importance for science. 
They teach us the normal type of individual and the 

Early Columbia Tests 
Record of 

Together with the averages and percentages of about 250 students. 



Head- /length, 19.4 cm. (0.43) 

Jieaa. ^ breadth, 15.3 cm. (0.38) 

Vision: Right eye, 72 cm. and over, 15%; 61 to 52 cm., 

52%; 44cm. and under, 33% 

Vision: Left eye, 72 cm. and over, 16%; 61 to 52 cm., 

60%; 44 cm., and under, 24% 

Color vision : Normal, 94 . 5 % ; defective, 4 % ; bUnd, 1.5% 
Preference for color: Blue, 42%; red, 22%; violet, 19% 

yeUow, 2%; green, 7%; white, 3%; none, 5% , 

Hearing: Right ear, abnormal, 3% 

" Left ear, abnormal, 2% , 

Perception of pitch: Error less than ^ tone, 10%; tV to 

one tone, 53%; more than one tone, 37% 

Sensation areas: Correct 4 or 5 times, 63%; 3, 2, 1 or 

times, 37% 

Force of movement: Error, 1.44 cm. (0.51) 

Sensitiveness to Pain: Right hand, 5.9 kg. (2.4) 

" " Left " 5.6 kg. (2.2) 

Strength: Right hand, 36.3 kg. (4.9) 

Left " 33.5 kg. (4.7) 

Fatigue: Work done 284.3 kg 

" Amount of fatigue, 65% (27) 

Reaction-time: 0. 159 sec. (0.019) 

Markmg 100 letters: 100 sec. (12) 

Naming 100 colors: 85 sec. (14) . : 

Making 100 movements: 34 sec. (4) 

100 accurate movements: { ^reVroVo's mm." (ois) .•.■.• 

Perception of size: Error, 2.4 mm. (2.0) 

Perception of time: " 

Memory: Numerals, heard, 7.6 (0.4) 

" " seen, 6.9(0.5) 

logical, 44.5% (11) 

" retrospective, error, 4.5 mm. (2.6) 

Association time, 55.4 sec. (22.9) 

Association of opposites 

Imagery: Visualization, distinct, 83% 

" Auditory, distinct, 23% 



TESTS, BLANKS, STANDARDS, FORMS 285 

normal variation from this type. They show us how 
different classes in the community differ, and on what 
conditions of heredity, education, etc., these differences 
depend. They show us how physical and mental traits 
are interrelated, how they alter with growth, and on 
what conditions development depends. The tests should 
be of interest to the individual as they show how he 
compares with his fellows, indicating defects and special 
aptitudes, and if repeated later in the college course or 
in after life the comparison may prove of great value. 
This record should be compared with the measurements 
taken in the gymnasium. 



NORMS AND STANDARDS 

The following tables illustrate the principle of norms 
and standards for mental and physical characteristics. 
In these cases various traits or measures of perform- 
ance have been recorded on large numbers of children 
at each age from six years to eighteen years. The 
figures under a given age column indicate what should 
be expected from the average or normal person of that 
age, in the trait in question. If the individual is pre- 
cisely "at age" in all the traits measured, all his rec- 
ords will fall in the vertical column under the figure in- 
dicating age. Deviation above or below the average will 
be indicated by position above or below this column. 
For description of the tests and instructions for their 
administration the reader should consult the references 
given on pages 275-282. 



286 



VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 



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TESTS, BLANKS, STANDARDS, FORMS 289 

GRADED SCALES 

A Roughly Graded Test for Children Who Are Less Than 
Three Years Old 

Normal Course of Development 

(After Preyer, Clmreh, Peterson and Paton) 

1st Week — Sensitive to light, reaction to touch, evidences 
of audition, sensibility to taste. 

2nd Week — Notices candle, facial reaction suggesting 
pleasure. 

3rd Week — Tears. 

4th Week — Smiles and vowel sounds. 

1st Month — Taste, smell, touch, sight, hearing. Sleeps 
two hours at a time, 16 hrs. out of 24. 

2nd Month — Occasional strabismus, recognizes human 
voice, turns head toward sound, pleased with music 
and with human faces. Laughs at tickling. Clasps 
with four fingers by 8th week. First consonants. 

3rd Month — Cries with joy at sight of mother or father. 
Eyelids not completely raised when child looks up. 
Knows sound of watch at 9th week. Listens with 
attention. 

4th Month — Eye movements perfect. Sees objects move 
toward eye. Joy at seeing itself in mirror. Op- 
poses thumb. Head held up permanently. Sits up 
with support to back. Begins to imitate. 

5th Month — Discriminates strangers. Pleasures of 
crumpling and tearing papers, pulling hair, or ring- 
ing bell. Sleeps 10 or 11 hrs. without food. Con- 
sonants 1 and k. Seizes and carries objects to 
mouth. 



290 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

6th and 7th Month — Raises self to sitting posture. 
Laughs. Raises and drops arms when pleasure is 
great. Teeth begin to appear. Astonishment shown 
by open mouth and eyes. Turns head as sign of 
refusal. 

8th and 9th Months — Stands on feet without support. 
Claps hands for joy. Has fear of dogs. Turns over 
when laid face down. Turns head to light when 
asked where it is. Questions understood before child 
can speak. Voice more modulated. 

10th, 11th, 12th Months — First attempts at walking. 
Sitting has become a habit. Stands without support. 
Whispering begins. Pushes chair. Obeys command, 
''Give the hand." 

13th, 14th, 15th Months— Says ''Papa" and "Mama." 
Raises itself by chair. Imitates coughing, and 
swinging of arms. Walks without support. Under- 
stands ten words. 

16th, 17th, 18th, 19th Months— Sleeps 10 hrs. at a time. 
Associates words with objects and movements. 
Blows horn, strikes with hand or foot, waters flow- 
ers, tries to wash hands, to comb and brush hair, to 
execute the other imitative movements. 

20th to 24th Months — Marks with pencil and paper. Ex- 
ecutes orders with surprising accuracy. 

25th to 30th Months — Distinguishes colors. Makes sen- 
tences of several words. Begins to climb and jump 
and to ask questions. 

30th to 40th Months — Goes up stairs without help. 
Clauses formed. Words distinctly spoken. Influ- 
ence of dialect appears. Much questioning. 

Beyond 40th Month— See Binet-Simon and other tests 
and norms. 



TESTS, BLANKS, STANDARDS, FORMS 1291 

Trabue Language Scale C* 

Write only one word on each blank 
Seven minutes time allowed 

Name 

1. The sky blue. 

2. Men older than boys. 

3. Good boys kind their sisters. 

4. The girl fell and her head. 

5. The _ rises the morning and „ at night. 

6. The boy who hard do well. 

7. Men more to do heavy work women. 

8. The sun is so that one can not 

directly .|causing great discomfort to the 

eyes. 

9. The knowledge of use fire is of 

important things known by but un- 
known animals. 

10. One ought to great care to the right|. 

of , for one who bad habits it 

to get away from them. 

^This scale is intended for the measurement of children. The 
steps from sentence to sentence are of approximately equal difficulty. 

Trabue Language Scalb^K^ 

Write onlifone word on-each blank 
Five minutes tim^ allowed 

Name 



'!._ The boy will his hand, if plays with'fire. 

2. Hot weather comes iaj the "and weather 

the winter. 

3. The poor Uttle has nothing to' ; he 

is hungry. 

4. Very few people how to spend time and to 

the best advantage. 
/6. One not, as a , attention . ,.. 

iminteresting things. 

6. To eat one is is a pleasure. 

7 — they us not, nature's 

are — and unchangeable. 

* This scale is intended for the measurement of 'young people an(J 
adults. The steps between the sentences are of approximately equaf 
difficulty. 



292 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY! 

Record Blank foe 

Name Born Admitted 







Ill 




1 


Points to nose, eyes, mouth. 






2 


Repeats " It raina. I am hungry.' 


' 




3 


Repeats 7 2. 






4 


Sees in Kcture 1. 




5. 




2. 




6. 




3. 




7. 




4. 




8. 



IV 

1 Knows sex, boy or girl, (girl or boy.) 

2 Recognizes key, knife, penny. 

3 Repeats 7 4 8. 

4 Compares lines. 



V 

1 Conipares 3 and 12 grama. 6 and 15_ grams. 

2 Copies square. (Draw on back of this sheet.) 

3 Repeats, "His name ia John. He is a very good boy." 

4 Counts four pennies. 

5 "Patience." 

VI 

1 Morning or afternoon, (afternoon or morning.) 

2 Defines fork horse 

table mama 

chair 

3 Puts key on chair; shuts door; brings box. 

4 Shows R. Hand. L. Ear. 

5 Chooses prettier? 1 & 2. 4 & 3. 5 & 6. 

VII 

1 Coimta 13 pennies. 

2 Describes Pictures. (See III 4.) 

3 Sees picture lacks eyes, nose, mouth, arms. 

4 . Can copy diamond, (over.) 

5 Recogmzes red, blue, green, yellow. (Tircie 6".) 

VIII 

1 Compares (Time 20".) 

Butterfly Wood Paper 

Fly Glass Cloth 

2 Counts backward 20-1. (Time 20'.) 

3 _ Repeats days. M. T. W. T. F. S. S. (Time 10".) 

4 sfcCounts stamps. 111222. (Time 10".) 

6 Repeats 4 7 3 9 5. 



IX 

1 Makes change 20c — 4c. 

2 Definitions. (See VI 2.) 

3 Knows date. 

4 Months. J. F. M. A. M. J. J. A. S. O. N. D. (Time IS*.) 

5 Anangea weights. (2 ooireot.) (1 min. each.) 1. 2. 3.1 



TESTS, BLANKS, STANDARDS, FORMS 293 

BiNET Tests 

Examined Mental Age 



1 Money Ic. 5c. 10c. 25c. 50c. $1. $2. $5. $10. 

2 Draws design from memory, (show 10 seconds.) 

3 Repeats 85472 6. 27468 1. 94173 8. 

4 Comprehends. 

(1st Series time 20") (2nd Series time 20") 

(2 out of 3) (3 out of 5) 

a. (Missed train.) a. (Late to School.) 

b. (Struck by playmate, etc.) b. (Important affair.) 
0. (Broken something.) c. (Forgive easier.) 

d. (Asked opinion.) 

e. (Actions vs. words.) 

5 Sentence: New York, Money, River. (Time 1'.) 



XI 

1 Sees absurdity. (3 out of 5.) (Time 2'.) 

a. Unfortunate painter. d. R. R. accident. 

b. Three brothers. e. Suicide. 

c. Locked in room. 

2 Sentence: New York, Money, River. (See X 5.) 

3 (5ive sixty words in three minutes. (Record on back.) 

4 Rhymes (Time 1' each.) (3 rhymes with each word.) 

day mill 

spring 

5 Puts dissected sentences together. (Time 1' each.) 
a. b. 



XII 

2 Repeats 29 6 437 5. 928516 4. 139584 7. 

Defines Charity 
Justice 
Goodness. 

3 Repeats, "I saw in the street a pretty little dog. He had curly brown hair, 

short legs and a long tail. " _ 

4 Resists suggestion (Lines), l.'-'^' 2. 3. _ 4. 5._ _ 6. 

5 Problems: (a) Hanging from limb, (b) Neighbor's visitors. 

XV 

1 Interprets picture. 

2 Change clock hands. 6.20 = 2.56 = 

3 Code. . COME QUICKLY. 

4 Opposites. 

1 good 3 quick 5 big 7 white 9 happy 

2 outside 4 tall 6 loud 8 light 10 false 

ADULT 

1 Cutting paper. 

2 Reversed triangle. 

3 Gives differences of abstract words. 

4 Difference between president of a republic and a king. 

5 Gives sense of a selection read. 



294i 



VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY] 



Suggestions Toward a Vocational Psychoqraph 

List of Measurements on a Singer 
(Prepared by C. E. Seashore, University of Iowa) 



I— SENSORY 
A— PITCH 

1 — Discrimination at a, 435 
vd. 

2 — Survey of register of 
discrimination. 

3 — Tonal range, (a) Upper, 
(b) Lower. 

4 — Timbre — discrimination. 

5 — Consonance and Disso- 
nance. 

II— MOTOR 

A— PITCH 

1 — Striking a note 

2 — Varying a tone 

3 — Singing intervals 

4 — Sustaining a tone 

5 — Registers 

6 — Timbre 

a — purity 
b^ — richness 
c — mellowness 
d — clearness 
e — flexibility 

7 — ^Plasticity; curves of 
learning 

III— ASSOCIATIONAL 

A~IMAGEBT 
1-Type 

2 — Role of auditory and 
motor imagery 

B-MEMORY 
1 — Memory span 
2 — Retention 
3— Redintegration 



B— INTENSITY 
1 — Sensibility 
2 — Discrimination 

C — TIME discrimination for 
short intervals. 



B— INTENSITY 
1 — Natural strength and 

volume of the voice. 
2 — Voluntary control. 



C—TIME 
1— Motor ability 
2 — Transition and attack 
3 — Singing in time 
4 — Singing in rhythm 



C— IDEATION 
1 — Association type and 

musical content 
2 — Musical grasp 
3 — Creative imagination 
4 — Plasticity : curves of 

learning 



TESTS, BLANKS, STANDARDS, FORMS 295 

IV— AFFECTIVE 

A— LIKES AND DISLIKES,— eharaxiter of musical appeal 

1 — Pitch, timbre and harmony 

2 — Intensity and volume 

3 — Time and rhythm 
B—BEACTION TO MUSICAL EFFECT 
C— POWER OF INTEBPBETATION IN SINGING 

V— SUPPLEMENT ABY D^T^,— biographical information, 
musical training, temperament and attitude, spontaneous 
tendencies in pursuit of music, general education and non- 
musical accomplishments, social circumstances, physique. 

Thorndike''s Proposed Tests for the Measurement of 
Intelligence op Adults 

{Science, Jan. 24, 1913) 

Series to consist of eight tests, four trials of each being 
given. 

1. Supplying words to make sense in mutilated pas- 

sages, the four trials being of four grades of dif- 
ficulty. (See Trabue's Completion Test for sample 
of this material.) 

2. Giving the '^opposites" of words, each trial com- 

prising twenty words, the four trials being of 
four grades of difficulty. ( See Woodworth-Wells : 
Opposites Tests for sample.) 

3. Memorizing a given word in connection with a given 

form, so as to be able to give the former when the 
latter is presented, there being 10 pairs in each 
"trial." (See special blanks.) 

4. Selecting from 50 forms a group of 25 of these 

which have been previously seen and examined 
for a minute or two. (See special blanks.) 

5. Marking the necessarily false statements in. mixed 

series of false and true statements, the four trials 



296 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGYi 

being of four grades of difficulty. (See special 
blanks.) 

6. Addition. (See Wood worth- Wells: Addition Tests.) 

7. Directions Tests. (See Woodworth- Wells : Hard 

Directions.) 

8. Selecting valid from invalid reasons for a given 

fact, the four tests being of four grades of dif- 
ficulty. (See special blank.) 

Miscellaneous Empieical Tests 

The following samples, chosen from the Report of the 
Committee on Standardization of Tests of the American 
Psychological Association (see Woodworth and Wells: 
Association Tests), are given as illustrations of tests 
which have been carefully prepared and standardized as 
to content and procedure and which are slowly being cor- 
related with various types of occupational activity. 

Following Instructions Test 

With your pencil make a dot over any one of these 
letters, F G H I J, and a comma after the longest of 
these three words: BOY MOTHER GIRL. Then, if 

Christmas comes in March, make a cross right here , 

but if not, pass along to the next question, and tell where 
the sun rises . If you believe that Edison dis- 
covered America, cross out what you just wrote, but if it 
was someone else, put in a number to complete this sen- 
tence : "A horse has feet. ' ' Write * ' yes, ' ' no mat- 
ter whether China is in Africa or not ; and then 

give a wrong answer to this question : * ' How many days 
are there in the week ? ' ' . Write any letter except 



TESTS, BLANKS, STANDARDS, FORMS ^9t 



G just after this comma , 
two times five are ten 



and then write ''No" if 
Now, if Tuesday comes 

after Monday, make two crosses here ; but if not, 

make a circle here or else a square here . 

Be sure to make three crosses between these two names 

of boys: GEORGE HENRY. Notice these two 

numbers: 3, 5. If iron is heavier than water, write the 

larger number , but if iron is lighter write the 

smaller number . Now show by a cross when the 

nights are longer: in summer? ; in winter? . 

Give the correct answer to this question : ' * Does water 

run uphill?" , and repeat your answer here 

. Do nothing here (5 + '^ = ) unless you 

skipped the preceding question ; but write the first letter 
of your first name and the last letter of your last name 
at the end of this line: 



Naming Opposites 

In the case of each word, name 
the word having the OPPOSITE 
MEANING, as: taU— short 



long 

soft 

white 

far 

up 

smooth 

early 

dead 

hot 

asleep 

lost 

wet 

high 

dirty 

east 

day 

yes 

wrong 

empty 

top 



north 

sour 

out 

weak 

good 

after 

above 

sick 

slow 

large 

rich 

dark 

front 

love 

tall 

open 

smnmer 

new 

come 

male 



Verb-Object Test 

In the case of each verb, supply 
an appropriate OBJECT, as: 
bake — bread 



smg 

build 

wear 

shoot 

scold 

win 

answer 

weave 

wiok 

mend 

fmmp 
earn 
open 
eat 
climb 
lend 
smoke 
singe 
dig 
sift 



read 

tear 

throw 

paint 

mail 

U^t 

sail 

spin 

lock 

wash 

bake 

spill 

lass 

polish 

sweep 

fiU 

sharpen 

write 

chew 

drive 



298 



VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 



Mixed Relations 

Give a fourth word which shall have the same relation to the third 
word that the second has to the first, as: 

Box — Square : : Orange — Round 
East — West : : Over — Under 
Man — ^Woman :: Boy — Girl 



Eye — see 


: Ear— 


Good — ^bad 


: : Long — 


Monday — Tuesday 


: April — 


Eagle — ^bird 


. : Shark— 


Do— did 


: See— 


Eat — bread 


: Drink- 


Bird — sings 


: Dog — 


Fruit — orange 


: Vegetable — 


Hour — ^minute 


: Minute — 


Sit — chair 


: Sleep— 


Straw — ^hat 


: Leather — 


Double — two 


: Triple— 


Cloud — rain 


: Sun— 


England — London 


: France — 


Hammer — tool 


: Dictionary — 


Chew — teeth 


: SmeU— 


Uncle — aunt 


: Brother — 


Pen — write 


: Knife— 


Dog — ^puppy 


: Cat— 


Water — wet 


: Fire— 


Little — ^less 


: Much — 


He — him 


:She— 


Wash — ^face 


: Sweep — 


Boat — water 


: Train— 


House — room 


J: Book— 


Crawl — snake 


: Swim — 


Sky— blue 


: Grass — 


Horse — colt 


: Cow— 


Swim — water 


: Fly— 


Nose — ^face 


: Toe— 


Once — one 


: Twice — 


Bad — worse 


: Good— 


Cat— fur 


: Bird- 


Hungry— food : 


: Thirsty— 


Pan — tin 


: Table- 


Hat — head 


: Glove— 


Buy — sell 


: Come — 


Ship — captain 


: Army — 


Oyster — shell 


: Banana — 


Man — woman 


: Boy— 



TESTS, BLANKS, STANDARDS, FORMS 299 



o 



60 



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300 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

SUBSTITUTION TEST 
iWrite in eadi figure the number assigned it in the key line. 

1^ © a <& A 

O t!^ D O A i!^ O D A O 

ilirODTl^aOAOOTJr 
O D A O O a i!^ D O A 
D^OAilfAO^AD 

OOAii^OD'^AOO 
A0O<?ni!^OODA 
O A O n O A O it A U 

^ODOA^DOOiir 
ADOi^OOADi^CJi 

SOURCES FOR TESTS 

Those who desire to make use of mental tests for voca- 
tional purposes, or in vocational investigations, will find 
suggestive material, sets of tests, instructions, norms, and 



TESTS, BLANKS, STANDARDS, FORMS 301 

similar useful directions in the following places. The 
list is by no means exhaustive but contains those refer- 
ences which in the author's experience have been most 
useful. 

Pyle, W. H.: "The Examination of School Children." 
The author describes numerous tests of a simple 
type, and gives age norms for each. 

Reports of Committee on Tests of the American Psy- 
chological Association. These appear from time to 
time in the Psychological Review Monograph Series, 
and contain accounts, instructions and frequently 
norms, for carefully planned and standardized tests. 

Woodworth and Wells: "Association Tests." This is 
one of the reports mentioned above, and contains an 
especially suggestive group of tests which should 
have widespread use because of their standard char- 
acter. 

WooUey, Rusk and Fisher: "Psychological Norms of 
Working Children." This is a monograph in the 
Psychological Eeview Series and gives an account 
of the tests in use in Cincinnati, with tables of norms 
for thirteen- and fourteen-year-olds. 

Simpson, B. R. : "Correlations of Mental Abilities," 
Columbia University Co^ntrihutions to Education, 
No. 53. The Appendix contains descriptions of the 
tests used ; many of them are worth trying out. 

Whipple, C M. : Manual of Mental and Physical 
Tests. ' ' By far the most useful and complete com- 
pendium of tests, norms, and bibliography available. 
Contains also chapters on methods of using tests 
and the statistical methods of scoring and evalua- 
tion. 

Teachers CoUege, Columbia University, Contributions, 



S02 VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

These monographs appear at irregular intervals and 
frequently contain reports of the construction and 
use of mental tests as instruments of educational 
and vocational measurement. Several of them in 
particular are concerned with scales and standards 
for the measurement of school abilities. Numerous 
tests may also be secured in the form of printed 
blanks, from the Publication Bureau of Teachers 
College. 

Thorndike Tests: Numerous forms of mental tests de- 
vised by Prof. E. L. Thorndike and his associates 
may be secured through the Teachers College 
Bureau of Publications, New York City. 

Stoelting and Co., 3047 Carroll Ave., Chicago, manufac- 
turers of scientific apparatus and materials, supply 
material and forms for many of the tests described 
in the above references. 

The Morningside Press, 3000 Broadway, New York City, 
supplies materials, instructions, record blanks, and 
tables of norms for a large number of psychological 
tests, especially those intended for vocational, 
educational and clinical application, and for use in 
the class room and laboratory. 



INDEX OF AUTHORS 



Amsden, 128 
Arnold, 236 

BiNET, 62, 70, Y2, 86 

Cattell, 60, 62, 126, 129, 
136, 138, 157 

COGAN, 48 

CouBTis, 232 

Darwin, 229 
Davenport, 129 
Dearborn, 178, 181, 182 
Descartes, 21 

Ellis, 230 

Farrand, 60 

Gall, 24 
Galton, 62 

Harrison, 234 
Harvey, 21 
Henri, 62 

HUYMANS, 129 

HocH, 128 
hollingworth, 231 

Jastrow, 24, 62 
Jones, 186, 189 

Kelley, 177 
Kraepblin, 62 



Lahy, 113, 119 
LaRue, 131 

LoMBROSO, 37 

Lough, 112, 119 
Lowell, 179, 199, 200, 202, 
135, 204, 205 

McCoMAS, 110, 112 
Meckel, 229 
Miles, 178 
Mill, 224 
MoBius, 224 
Montague, 231 

MtJNSTEBBERG, 100, 111, 116 

Nicholson, 193, 195 
Nietzsche, 224 

NoRSWORTHY, 134, 136, 138, 
141 

Partridge, 128 
Paynter, 111 
Pearson, 230 
Pyle, 232 

Rice, 195 
Romanes, 226 

Schneider, 53, 103, 216 
Schopenhauer, 224 
Seashore, 90, 93, 95, 96 
Simon, 69, 70, 72 
Smith, 182, 185 
Spurzheim, 24 
Sylvester, 72 
303 



304$ 



INDEX OF AUTHORS 



Terman, 232 

Thompson, 226 

Thorndike, 74, 111, 127, 180, 

188, 189, 190, 191, 206, 210, 

216, 227 
Toulouse, 81, 88 
Trabue, 71, 78, 23^ 



VoiTSECOVSKY, 235 

VanDenberg, 179 

Wells, 128, 129, 130 
WiERSMA, 129 
Woolley, 114, 119 

Yereis, 131 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS 



Advancement in industry, 219 
Analysis, of belief in physiog- 
nomic signs, 32 S. 
of character, 49, 121 ff., 

133 ff., 143 ff. 
of educational changes, 11 
of effects of practice, 345 &.. 
of individuals, 18, 121 ff., 

143 ff., 245 ff. 
of maternal instinct, 238 
of medieval clairvoyance, 7 
of mental tests, 64, 245 ff. 
of occupations, 78, 80, 92, 

96 ff., 109 ff., 208 ff. 
of phrenology, 26 ff. 
of primitive thinking, 2 
of school curriculum, 174 
Antecedents of vocational psy- 
chology, 1 
references, 275 
Aptitudes, of the average indi- 
vidual, 215 
of the feeble-minded, 208 
of the mentally inferior, 210 
of the specially gifted, 212 
of women, 222 ff. 
Attitudinal factors, 15, 63, 65, 
104, 149 ff., 190 ff., 210, 
214 ff., 237, 270 

Behavior, judgment of, 134 

study of, 57 
Bibliographies, 275-281 
Binet tests, nature of, 69 

record blank for, 290 



Brain, functions of, 22, 27 
measurements of, 30 
size of, 29 

Character analysis, 8 
Clairvoyance, 7 ff. 
Correlation, formula for, 45 

meaning of, 44 

of ability to judge self and 
ability to judge others, 
168 

of elementary school stand- 
ing and later academic 
achievement, 177 ff. 

of estimated traits and ob- 
jective measures, 161 ff. 

of initial and final trials, 
246 ff. 

of judicial capacity and pos- 
session of traits, 158, 167 

of mental tests and voca- 
tional ability, 113, 116, 
212 

of mental traits, 46, 50, 52, 
161, 164, 169, 171 

of school standing and suc- 
cess in later life, 192 ff. 
Curriculum, as a vocational 
test, 174 ff. 

bibliography on, 279 

Determinants, bibliography on, 
280 
of vocational aptitude, 208 ff. 



305 



306 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS 



Division of labor between the 
sexes, 223, 240, 242 

Education, industrial, 15 
popularization of, 13 
theory of, 14 
Employment bureaus, 47, 141 
Experiments, on abilities and 

interests, 190 
on brain, 22, 226 
on college students, 60, 137 
on effects of practice, 245 ff. 
on eminent men, 81, 87, 135, 

138 
on functional periodicity, 236 
on judgments of character, 

135-173 
on mental defectives, 76 
on mental measurement, 67, 

74 
on mental tests, 59, 64 
on musicians, 94 
on photographs, 41, 48 
on physiognomies, 53 
on selecting employees by 

psychological methods, 

78, 110-121, 211 
on self -analysis, 114 ff., 156 
on sex differences, 226 ff. 

Form board, 72 
Fortune telling, 7 

General intelligence, 69, 255 ff. 

Individual differences, 18 
as affected by practice, 245 ff. 
in vocational aptitudes, 
208 ff., 222 ff. 
Intelligence scales, bibliography 
on, 276 
nature of, 67 
types of, 69 
vocational use of, 75 ff. 



Judgment, of associates, 48, 

79, 121 ff., 133 ff., 143 ff. 

of character, 133 ff., 139 ff., 

143 ff. 
of photographs, 41, 47, 48 
of scientific men, 135 
of self, 122, 124-133, 143 ff. 
of students, 137, 143 ff. 
of teachers, 136 
Localization of functions, 22, 
27 



Magic, examples of, 3 ff . 

vocational efforts of, 1 ff. 
Maternal instinct, analysis of, 

238 
Mental age, 70 

Mental defectives, detection of, 
75 
education of, 14 
in industry, 75, 213 
menace of, 77 

vocational aptitudes of, 208, 
213 
Motives of vocational psychol- 
ogy, 1 
bibliography on, 275 

Norms of performance, 61, 
66 ff., 73, 79, 91, 94, 
285-293 
bibliography on, 276 

Occupations, analysis of, 92, 
96 ff., 102, 103, 208 ff. 
blind alley, 16, 210, 218 

Periodicity 

effect of, on mental and 
motor ability, 234 ff. 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS 



30T. 



Photographs, experiments with, 
41, 48 
judgments of, 41, 47, 48 
vocational use of, 48, 52 
Phrenology, assumptions of, 
26 
errors of, 27-32 
origin of, 23 
practice of, 25 
Physiognomies, analysis of, 34 
dogmas of, 39 

experiments in, 41, 49, 53 
practice of, 32 
vocational futility of, 54 
Practice, effect of, on individ- 
ual differences, 257 ff. 
limits of, 256 
on correlation of abilities, 
247 
Primitive thinking, examples 
of, 3 
stages of, 2 ff. 
vocational efforts of, 2 
Product scales, bibliography on, 
276 
nature and use of, 74 
Psychograph, bibliography on, 
277 
nature of, 80, 88 
of individuals, 80 
of a mathematician, 81 ff. 
of a novelist, 86 
of occupation, 90, 97, 98, 

102 
of a singer, 92 
vocational use of, 96, 99, 
107 
Psychological tests, bibliogra- 
phy on, 276 
method of, 61 
of adults, 210, 248 
of children, 69, 114 
of clerical workers, 110, 111 



Psychological tests, of college 

students, 60, 145 
of efficiency experts, 78 
of factory operators, 111, 

115 
of judges. 111 
of marine officers, 112 
of motormen, 112 
of musical ability, 94 
of Poincare, 81 ff. 
of a singer, 92 
of stenographers, 113 
of salesmen. 111 
of telephone operators, 110, 

112 
of typesetters. 111 
of typewriters, 113, 114 
of Zola, 86 
origin and history of, 

57 ff. 
samples of, 284-300 
scales of, 67 ff. 
standardization of, 63, 67 
sources of, and instructions 

for, 300-302 
tests of, 64 
theory of, 245 ff. 
vocational use of, 60, 66, 75, 

78, 80 ff., 90, 109-121, 

210, 218, 261 



Scales, bibliography on, 276 

for measuring intelligence, 
67 

for measuring special achieve- 
ment, 74 ff. 

samples of, 285-293 

use of, 75 
School records, as indicative of 
interests, 190 ff. 

as related to later academic 
achievement, 177 ff. 



308 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS 



School records, as related to 

success in later life, 

192 ff. 
bibliography on, 279 
correlation of, with tests, 

165 
intercorrelation of, 172 
vocational significance of, 

174 ff. 
Selection, of an occupation, 

12 ff., 102, 104, 123 
of employees, 53, 75, 78, 99, 

110-113, 115, 133, 210, 

211, 219, 240 
Self-analysis, bibliogi'aphy on, 

278 
method of, 122 
problems of, 124 
reliability of, 149 ff. 
systematic guides to, 125-133 
Sex differences, bibliography 

on, 280 
in average intelligence, 225 ff. 
in instinctive equipment, 237 
in physiological function, 242 
in special handicaps, 234 
in variability, 228 ff. 
in vocational opportunity, 

240 ff. 



Testimonials, 142, 173 
Tests. See Psychological tests 
Theory, bibliography on, 281 
of mental tests, 245 



Variation, in ability, 228 ff. 
in judgment, 43, 51, 134, 136, 
138 ff. 



Variation, measures of, 42 
of individual performance, 

251 
of self -estimates, 149 ff. 
Vocational aptitudes, bibliog- 
raphy on, 280 
determinants of, 208 ff. 
of women, 222 ff. 
Vocational guidance, 11 
Vocational methods, bibliog- 
raphy on, 278 
specialized forms, 109 ff. 
analogy, 111, 118 
correlations, 112 ff. 
miniature, 109, 116 
samples, 110, 117 
Vocational psychology, bibliog- 
raphy on, 275 ff. 
motives and antecedents of, 

1 ff. 
present status of, 267 ff. 
problems of, 266 ff. 
progress of, 274 
Vocational surveys, 17 
Vocational training, 16 



Women, bibliography, 280 
biological handicap of, 

242 ff. 
future of, 244 
in industry, 222 
instinctive equipment of, 

237 ff. 
mental abilities of, 228 
special disabilities o f , 

234 ff. 
variability of, 228 ff. 
vocational aptitudes of, 

223 ff. 



(1) 



